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Germans in the Gubernatorial 
Campaign of Iowa in 1859 



BY 



F. I. HERRIOTT 

Professor of Economics and Political Science 

DRAKE UNIVERSITY 

DES MOINES 



Reprinted from Deutsch-Amerikanische Geschichtsblaet- 
ter Jahrbuch der Deutsch-Amerikanischen Historischen 
Gesellschaft von Illinois— Jahrgang 1914 {VoL XIV) 



COPYRIGHT 1915 

GERMAN -AMERICAN HISTORICAL SOCIETY 
OF ILLINOIS 



FLZI 



THE GERMANS IN THE GUBERNATORIAL 
CAMPAIGN OF IOWA IN 1859. 

By F. I. HARRIOTT, 

Professor of Economics and Political Science, 

Drake University. 



In their respective state conventions, held at Des Moines, 
June 22 and 23, 1859, the Republican and Democratic parties 
of Iowa denounced the "Tv^-o Year" Amendment to the Con- 
stitution of the State of Massachusetts augmenting the disa- 
bilities of the foreign-born in respect of their participation in 
the franchise and office holding in the Old Bay State. Each 
party, as we have seen, ^ both in the preliminaries and in the 
proceedings of its conventions, sought to outdo the other in 
damnatory language. Each party, by reason of the complica- 
tions and developments of the antecedent discussions, not only 
denounced its opponents, but each condemned its own parti- 
zans, for acts or policies adversely affecting the foreign-bom. 
The Republicans deplored and denounced the acts and conduct 
of their party in Massachusetts. The Democrats not only 
refused their National Administration the common courtesy 
of encomium and endorsement, but squarely repudiated Presi- 
dent Buchanan's course in respect of his policy of protecting 
naturalized citizens abroad. The Republicans did more, For 
the next to the highest political office in the state, that of 
Lieutenant Governor, they nominated one of the leading Ger- 

^ See the writer's "The Germans of Iowa and the 'Two Year* 
Amendment of Massachusetts" in Deutsch-Amcrikanischen Geschichts- 
blatter — Jahrbuch dcr Deutsch-Amerikanischen Historischen Gesell- 
schaft von Illinois. — Jahrgang, 1913, pp. 202-308 — (Vol. xiii.) 



/S''^0(>^<^ 



mans, then a Senator in the General Assembly of the State, 
Mt. Nicholas J. Rnsch of Scott County. 

Ordinarily when tlie major political parties act in unison 
— when each deplores a project or policy and each denounces 
the promoters thereof — the casus belli disappears and the in- 
cident is closed ; popular agitation subsides ; partizan interest 
immediately lapses ; statesmen cease their troubling and poli- 
ticians seek- new courses or points of advantage. Partizans 
cannot make headway with party crafts in dead calms and 
eddies : and they cannot energize party enginery and machinery 
v\ith exploded issues, or with recollections and reminiscences. 
If the political seas continue to be rough and uncertain strong 
currents are nuiuing, or contrary winds are blowing or a seri- 
ous seismic disturbance and reaction is in progress. 

In the pages which follow the nature and course of de- 
velopments in the gubernatorial campaign in Iowa following 
the state conventions of the major parties in Des Moines in 
June, in so far as the phenomena relate directly or indirectly 
to the interests and conduct of the Germans in that campaign, 
are exhibited. Some of the comments elicited by the actions 
of the Republican state convention will first be displayed and 
then the conditions, character and course of discussion and 
somewhiit of the practical procedure and notable developments 
will be set forth. 

In th.cse days it is not easy to make the reader realize 
the solicitude of the party leaders of 1859 respecting the 
German vote. The magnitude and overwhelming conse- 
quences of the Civil War have long obscured some of the 
antecedent currents and drifts that conjoined and culminated 
in that terrific catnclysm. Simple assertion, or succinct sum- 
maries of facts indicating partizan anxiety for the German 
vote will not effectually reproduce the impression produced 
by an extensive examination of the contemporary press and 
confidential correspondence of the party leaders of the period. 
As in a preceding, so in the present narrative, the actual ex- 
pressions of the party leaders will be generously cited, with a 

— 2 — 

Author 

< Pfr««M) 

AUG '9 )3ib 



view to reproducing the impression a survey of contemporary 
discussion produces.^ 

I. 

The post-convention comment upon the work of the Re- 
pubHcan state convention of June 22, 1859, exhibits clearly 
that Germans held the whip hand in the proceedings and 
that the alliance of the Germans in the ensuing campaign was 
the chief concern of the party managers. This fact appears 
both in the private correspondence of the leaders and in the 
expressions of the party press. It is apparent in the com- 
ments of those who applauded the work of the convention as 
well as in the observations of those who regarded its nominees 
and work with eyes blurred with the prejudice of disappoint- 
ment or with partizan cynicism. 

Senator Jas. W. Grimes was unable to attend the conven- 
tion at Des Moines because of illness in his family. As soon 
as he read the dispatches announcing the nominations he wrote 
Mr. Kirkwood, the nominee for Governor, at some length. 
Two paragraphs of his letter are instructive: It was dated 
at Burlington, June 23. 

Dear Kirkwood, 

I hope it is not necessary for me to say to you how 
much I am gratified at your nomination. The truth is, 
the entire ticket suits everybody here. I have not heard a 
word whispered against it and I have not learned that 

2 In this narrative the writer's sources are chiefly the Correspondence 
and Memoranda in manuscript and the newspapers in the Aldrich Col- 
lections in the Historical Department of Iowa at Des Moines. To 
Curator E. R. Harlan and his Assistants he is indebted for innumerable 
courtesies and constant consideration. To Mr. C. C. Stiles of the Hall 
of Archives he is likewise indebted for assistance in compiling and 
verifying the returns of the election as exhibited in the appendices. 

To Dr. A. P. Richter, formerly editor of Der Demokrat of Daven- 
port the writer is under a heavy load of obligation for opportunities 
given him to make an examination of its files, for extended personal 
examinations of the files by Dr. Richter himself in response to the 
writer's inquiries and for constant encouragement in his researches — 
obligations which the writer cannot repay but which it is both his duty 
and pleasure thus to acknowledge. 

— 3 — 



there is a particle of dissatisfaction with any part of it, 
anyAvhere, except among- the Democrats. They, I am 
sorry to say, are very much incensed at the nomination of 
Mr. Rusch. His nomination has deprived them of their 
entire capital upon which they expected to conduct the 
campaign. What is the use of talking about the Mass. 
constitutional amendment whilst Rusch's name is on the 
ticket as a constant reminder that we do not uphold the 
principle of that amendment? Why were you so cruel 
as to spoil their nice investment in "Col. Schade" who 
was imported hither expressly to meet the exigencies of 
this contest ? They are exceedingly angry at your want of 
consideration of their desires to carry the state this fall 
and upon this question, for they could make no votes on 
any other, they thought, and hence they have been com- 
pelled as an afterthought to dig up the temperance ques- 
tion, state expenses, negro schools, etc., and try to galvan- 
ize them into life in their platform. 
* * * 

I shall write to Rusch today urging him to write to his 
German friends all over the state so as to bring them to 
the polls en masse. There are two or three thousand 
Germans in the state who have not yet secured their last 
papers. The names of all such should be discovered — 
they should get their final papers and be brought to the 
polls. 

Senator Grimes manifestly not only regarded the conse- 
quences of the "Two Year" Amendment of Massachusetts 
as the major matter in the minds of the party leaders in tht> 
deliberations of the conventions at Des Moines, June 22nd 
and 23rd ; but, as he viewed the situation, the Germans ano 
their alliance was the immediate exigency if the Republicans 
were to secure success in the impending campaign. If the 
partly could not allure and hold the German vote, defeat was 
almost certain. Senator Grimes' urgency about organizing 
the German voters, and his suggestion ^bout promoting the 
naturalization of the Germans show that in both the strategy' 
and the tactics of the campaign Germans were to constitute 
one of the primary facts. The judgment of Senator Grime? 
represented the keenest political intelligence in the state. He 
was an old and skilled campaigner and knew conditions in the 
state as thoroughly as a hunter or trapper knows the trees 
and tracks of the forests and plain. 

— 4 — 



The Republican editors generally, if they expressed them- 
selves, greeted the nominations of Kirkwood and Rusch with 
approval. Some of the leading editors, however, e. g. Mr. 
J. B. Howell of The Gate City, of Keokuk, expressed neither 
approval nor disapproval, which under ordinary circumstanced 
might be inferred to be indicative of antagonism. But for the 
most part approval was signified. 

The predominance of concern for the German vote in the 
public consciousness was signified in sundry ways — in the na- 
ture, extent and emphasis of the mention of Mr. Rusch's 
nomination. This concern was exhibited indirectly as well 
as directly. In comparison Mr. Kirkwood's nomination did not 
elicit nearly so much comment as did Mr. Rusch's either in 
the Republican press or in the Democratic press. Mr. Kirk- 
wood's nomination, like that of General Dodge, was evidently 
regarded as a matter of course. But Mr. Rusch's nomination, 
on the contrary, was the fact extraordinary in the situation 
and correspondents and editors who descant upon the work of 
the Republican convention, if they are Republicans, took pains 
to place Mr. Rusch's elevation in the most favorable light, 
or if they were adverse towards it, or were Democrats, they 
sought to display his nomination against the shadows. It is 
obvious that both those applauding and those criticising re- 
garded Mr. Rusch and the Germans as the major strategic fact 
in the situation. 

The earnest desire of the Republican leaders to secure 
"American" favor for the Republican candidate for Lieutenant 
Governor is shown in an interesting fashion by the assiduity 
with which Republican editors reprinted various laudatory 
articles eulogizing Mr. Rusch. A few days before the Re- 
publican state convention at Des Moines the Democratic news- 
paper, The NeuKs, of Davenport, published an editorial, gen- 
erous in its sentiments and flattering in its eulogy of Mr. 
Rusch. The writer discerned the probability of his nomination 
and said: 

But if by any chance we are to have a Republican 
Lieutenant Governor why, we say, let it be Mr. Rusch. 
He is a very clever man — a German born, but thoroughly 

— S — 



American in feeling and as well qualified as any Republican 
we know to fill the office. Mr. Rusch is intelligent and 
well informed and vastly popular with his countrymen. . . . 
If Iowa remains a Republican State, and Rusch's country- 
men continue to exercise so important an influence over 
the destinies of the Republicans here, he will have, with 
his fine natural abilities, a glorious future before him. He 
will undoubtedly go eventually to the arena of the United 
States Senate to display them. 

The editorial of the News was published too late for ex- 
ploitation by the advocates of Mr. Rusch's nomination prior to 
the convention at Des Moines but immediately thereafter the 
Republican press throughout the state began reprinting the 
editorial ; and one encounters it in issues in the latter weeks 
of the campaign. 

Mr. John Teesdale's assertion of Mr. Rusch's effectiveness 
as a platform speaker given in The Weekly Citizen's account 
of the proceedings of the Convention has already been cited. ' 
Mr. Rusch's forehandedness and success as a farmer, his 
genial nature and generosity in his dealings with neighbors in 
the common life of the community in which he lived near 
Davenport were thus described in the columns of Mr. J. M. 
Beardsley's paper The Oskaloosa Herald. 

* * * While at Des Moines last week we met an old 
class-mate who has lived neighbor to Mr. Rusch for a 
number of years. He informs us that Mr. R.'s kindness 
and liberality to all his acquaintances has made him ex- 
ceedingly popular at home. The present Spring when 
seed grain was very hard to obtain and commanded ex- 
orbitant prices, Mr. R., more fortunate tlian many of 
his neighbors, had a large supply which he liberally 
distributed among them at low prices and without regard 
to their present ability to pay. He mentioned other and 
similar incidents. * * * 

Mr. J. C. Brown, the editor of Tlie Weekly Visitor, pub- 
lished at Indianola, county seat of Warren county, did not 
regard the nomination of Mr. Rusch with any favor. His 
columns from time to time exhibit "Americanistic" predilec- 
tions. His constituents and readers were mainly native Amer- 

3 Ibid, p. 304. 

— 6 — 



icans, ]arr;;ely with southern ancestral traditions. Mr. Brown, 
whether expressing- his strong personal feelings or indicating 
his appreciation of the stout prejudices of his readers, in 
reporting the events of the convention at Des Moines, dwelt on 
matters that would, he well knew, arouse nativistic prejudice 
and alienate Americans from the Republican ticket. He malev- 
olently refers to two subjects that he knew would be harped on 
incessantly by every partizan opponent of the Republican party 
in the campaign impending. He says [July /] : 

Rusch's speech caused roars of laughter. It was. per- 
haps, very fair German, but it could not be understood 
as English. If elected, however, he will with the assist- 
ance of a good interpreter be able to preside over the 
Senate of Iowa — at an additional expense of five or six 
dollars a day. Rusch was a member of the Senate m the 
last Legislature, and made a good deal of fun for his 
colleagues. He distinguished himself as the advocate ot 
free "sperits," but only succeeded in procuring the passage 
of the Bill permitting the sale of lager beer and native 
wine. The ticket aside from the Lievitenant Governor is 
composed of competent men. 

It is strange that such a man as John Edwards should 
be rejected by an intelligent convention and Rusch taken 
in his stead, and in the Legislature of 1858 he [Edwards] 
presided for some time as a Speaker of the House, in 
which capacity he gave entire satisfaction. But expediency 
often supersedes merit. 

The Visitor's comments were quoted extensively by the 
Democratic editors as conclusive evidence of the propriety of 
their caustic comments upon the unfitness of the nomination 
of the second man on "The Plow Handle" ticket as the Repub- 
almost certain. Senator Grimes' urgency about organizing 
licans fondly described their ticket. 

The Chariton Patriot, owned and published by Judge John 
Edwards, as a good party paper commended the nominees, but 
its words easily sug^gest the wry face with which the editor 
penned his commendation. 

Nicholas J. Rusch.... is an extensive farmicr. . . .is a 
fine scholar — and makes a fluent speech in his mother 

tongue He is represented .... to be a kind hearted 

gentleman and good neighbor. The only objection that 

— 7 — 



could be urged against Mr. Rusch is the difficulty of 

speaking the English language to make him a prompt and 

efficient officer. 

* * * 

Mr. Rusch's nomination was brought about by a demo- 
cratic pressure. The papers of that party having labored 
for some time to prejudice adopted citizens against the 
Republican party, growing out of the Massachusetts 
amendment, to their constitution.* 
Whether the Democrats forced the Republicans to nominate 
Mr. Rusch, or the passage of the act in Massachusetts com- 
pelled the nomination any one may now determine. 

The turns and twists of current comment are indicated in 
an interesting manner in one of Mr. Dorr's editorials published 
in the Express and Herald, June 29. I give it entire : 

A GAME THAT WOn't WIN. 

It is generally understood among the leaders of the 
Republican party in this state, that Mr. Rusch, their nomi- 
nee for Lieutenant Governor, stands no chance of being 
elected. His nomination was only a bait thrown out to 
catch the German vote, just as the Illinois Republicans 
threw out a similar bait a few months ago in the nomina- 
tion of a candidate for Lieutenant Governor (Francis A. 
Hoffman in 1856). 

This is a specimen of the Republican tactics which can- 
not deceive anyone who will consider the elements con- 
stituting that motley party. Neither can it deceive those 
who reflect, how that party, has acted and continues to act, 
in the older states towards that portion of our citizens 
whose votes it now goes a-begging after in Iowa. 

That which was intolerant Iowa Know-Nothingism four 
short years ago, is now known by the more specious title 
of Republicanism but the former leaders are leaders still 
and the grand Sachems of the one organization are the 
moving spirits of the other, and that there is any change 
in their feelings towards the people whose votes, for the 
sake of offices they now seek, is not true. 

This was apparent even among the delegates at their 
state convention last week. When it was intimated by 
some of the wirepullers that in consequence of the action 
of their party in Massachusetts, the "German vote" would 
probably be cast against them unless some German name 
* Quoted in Weekly Visitor, July 14, 1859. 



were on the ticket, the intimation was received with con- 
tempt and derision. Some of the delegates from the 
southern part of the state declared that neither themselves 

nor their "sections" would vote for any d d Dutchman. 

The matter was further discussed in private caucus and 
it was shown to the satisfaction of the majority that, in 
their own words ''a German name upon the ticket was 
necessary to catch the German vote, and, without that vote, 
the ticket would be defeated." This conclusion being 
arrived at the southern delegations consented to vote for 
the plan. 

Indeed, it was pretty well understood that Mr. Rusch 
who was finally agreed upon as the "German" to be sacri- 
ficed would not receive the vote of the party, and we have 
no doubt that the election returns vv^ill show that to the 
Republican leaders. 

Seeing, then, that his nomination is but a bait to catch 
votes, will the scheme succeed? We rather think not. 
We take it that those whom the party of shams intend to 
deceive are well aware that in almost every instance of 
the Republicans nominating a German, they refuse to 
vote for him as a party, and he is generally defeated. 
Intelligent men see through this Republican scheme and 
some leading Germans have already assured us, that it is 
a game that won't win. 

So much attention to Mr. Rusch, and particularly so much 
effort to deride and to discount the nomination of the Senator 
from Scott County, conclusively demonstrate that die Demo- 
crats appreciated the masterly tactics of their opponents in 
selecting Mr. Rusch as the chief support of their standard 
bearer in the approaching campaign. 

The epistolary confidences of some of the minor party 
leaders in their communications to their party chiefs as to the 
efl^ect of Mr. Rusch's nomination in their respective bailiwicks, 
confirms this conclusion. Writing Mr. Kirkwood immediately 
after returning to Keokuk from the state convention, Mr. 
Hawkins Taylor, an experienced party worker, thus reports : 
"Our German friends are coming over rapidly and I feel sure 
will do their duty." Democrats, likewise, concurred in this 
sentiment, or rather dreaded that the anticipations of the Re- 
publicans would prove correct. One of the associate editors 
of The News of Davenport — the author probably of the edito- 

— 9 — 



rial previously cited — was Mr. James A. Buchanan. Immediately 
followins^ the Democratic convention at Des Moines he wrote 
Mr. Laurel Summers, the United States Marshall for Iowa, 
the chief political appointee of the national Administration 
in the state at that time, commenting on the conduct of the 
Democratic convention and noting the adverse signs. After 
deploring the treatment of President Buchanan by the conven- 
tion he closes with the observation: "I fear the nomination 
of Rusch will give our county [Scott] ticket a hard time 
this fall." 

II. 

In order to appreciate the part played by the Germans in 
the political campaign of 1859 it is necessary to examine some- 
what minutely the conduct of the party workers and organizers 
and follow the course of discussion as exhibited in the news 
columns and in the editorial comments of partizan editors. 
From the beginning to the conclusion of the campaign the evi- 
dence is clear, constant and widespread that the act of Massa- 
chusetts in adopting the Two Year Amendment of May 9 
aroused the animosities of the Germans and made their al- 
legiance to the Republican standards very doubtful unless the 
party managers could overcome their suspicions and discontent. 

In the large — public interest concentrated about three gen- 
eral subjects. First, and foremost was the subject of Slavery 
and the attitude of the gubernatorial and legislative candidates 
towards the vexatious questions incident to the "irrepressible 
conflict ;" second, the status and treatment of the foreign-born ; 
and, third, the management of the finances of the state. Each 
group of subjects aroused much discontent and seriously dis- 
turbed the Republican leaders. Discussion of these several 
subjects, of course, veered constantly; in one place one subject, 
and in another place another subject was the central theme of 
discussion ; but each subject recurrently would come into the 
foreground and in turn split the air. Local interests, especially 
racial antecedents and prejudices, would determine the emphasis 
and the recurrence. Another subject produced more or less 
sheet lighting and now and then sent a vivid flash through local 
discussion, namely the ever-recurring "Temperance Question." 

— 10 — 



As in the preliminaries of the state conventions, so in the 
maneuvers and discussions of the campaiori the incitement of 
the Germans depended more or less upon local conditions. In 
the "river counties,'' namely along the Mississippi, wherein the 
foreign born hived and swarmed, the appeal to the Germans 
was direct, constant and open. In the inland counties, and 
especially in the southern counties in which native stocks and 
particularly emigrants from Southern states were numerous 
and often preponderant, the Republicans said comparatively 
little and the Democrats rang the changes upon the "Two Year" 
Amendment and the fondness of the people of Massachusetts 
for the Negro and their discrimination against the intelligent 
Germans. In the northern counties, especially in the more 
populous agricultural regions wherein New Englanders and 
New Yorkers and their westernized "Yankee" descendants 
from Michigan and Wisconsin and Northern Ohio and Indiana 
were predominant. Republican editors and party managers 
dwelt upon the iniquities of Slavery and the flagrant and 
insidious aggressions of its advocates and promoters, the 
benefits of freedom and the Homestead bill to the liberty- 
loving, home-seeking Germans. The question of Slavery and 
the status and the interests of the Germans were closely in- 
terlaced. Both Democrats and Republicans appealed directly 
to the prejudices and passions incident to the heated contro- 
versies produced by slavery in their attempts to persuade the 
Germans to desert or to adhere to the standards of the Re- 
publican party. 

To demonstrate the truth of the foregoing I shall trace 
the course of discussion and procedure in the campaign with 
considerable detail. The phenomena of the campaign were 
so various and variant that an easy-going, straight-forward 
narrative is not feasible — at least I shall not attempt to pre- 
sent events in a chronological order. The general conditions 
and the general currents of public interest and discussion that 
signified or compelled concern for the German vote will first 
be exhibited. Then the particular maneuvres of the party 
managers here and there throughout the state designed to at- 

— 11 — 



tract or distract the German vote will be pointed out. The 
plans for Mr. Rusch's canvass will be outlined and the details 
of his personal campaign will be set out in considerable detail. 
Some phases of the conclusion of the canvass and an analysis 
of the returns of the election will conclude our study. 

III. 

In the preliminaries and in the proceedings of the State 
Conventions of both the major political parties we have seen 
that the "Two Year" Amendment of Massachusetts was the 
central, primary fact controlling maneuvers and decisions in 
preparation for the campaign. When both parties concur in 
denouncing an action or policy and advocate the same course 
the casus bdli ceases to be threatening, the excitement sub- 
sides and public interest is diverted into other channels. Did 
the act of Massachusetts disappear in the debates or continue 
to arouse controversy? 

There was not the frequency and ferv^or of specific mention 
of the Amendment by title and verse during the campaign as 
there had been during April and May. Nevertheless it is not 
extravagant to say that the "Two Year" Amendment continued 
constantly in the forefront of popular consciousness from the 
beginning to the close of the canvass. It was the base line 
of Democratic appeals to the Germans and it was the back- 
ground that induced the Republicans to assail the Democrats 
with such extraordinary vigor in their efforts to demonstrate 
that the animus of Democratic doctrine and policies was an- 
tagonism to the welfare of the Germans. The Act of the 
Old Bay State came in for comment and declamation in all 
sorts of connections as will appear in subsequent sections. 
Here I shall first exhibit some evidence of the specific men- 
tion and direct consideration given the measure and particu- 
larly the emphasis and iteration of the fact of its enactment 
as a matter that should be decisive in determining the German 
electors in the throw of their votes. 

Republicans naturally did not desire to expatiate upon the 
act. Their leaders, however, were ready in defense the in- 

— 12 — 



stant they were attacked. The party had pronounced against 
the act in no uncertain terms. All the Republican states west 
of New England had repudiated the act. The candidacy of 
Mr. Nicholas J. Rusch for Lieutenant Governor was indu- 
bitable and incontrovertible proof that the Republicans of 
Iowa gave the act no countenance. They spent their vigor in 
denouncing Democratic doctrines and recalling episodes that 
indicated organic hostility of the Democrats towards the 
foreign born. 

The Democratic editors and speakers had no embarrass- 
ments and no scruples to deter them in making mention of 
the "odious Act" as they were wont fondly to designate the 
Act of Massachusetts. They let slip few opportunities to 
heckle Republicans for permitting the passage, or rather for 
passing the Act in the foremost Republican state of the North. 
More regularly, perhaps, than was the case with the Re- 
publican papers, Democratic papers reprinted their state plat- 
form in extenso almost consecutively from week to week ; and 
that document was in considerable part a denunciation of the 
Amendment of Massachusetts. I shall give a few illustrations 
of direct and specific mention of the amendment in the prac- 
tical discussion of the campaign. 

Mr. F. M. Zieback opened fire on the Act in the Sioux 
City Register [July 7] in a tart editorial entitled "Governor 
Banks Against the Two Year Amendment." The Springfield 
[Mass.] Republican had then but recently asserted that Gov. 
Banks was really opposed to the principle of the Amendment 
because he had, in making a number of appointments to the 
bench of Massachusetts, selected not only men who were not 
affiliated with the "American" party of that Commonwealth, 
but some who were openly and aggressively opposed to the 
passage of the Amendment. The Republican thought that 
such facts might "help to convince the aggrieved westerners 
that we are not all fanatics and that the question is not a 
party one here." The Madison [Wis.] Journal accepted its 
eastern contemporary's assertion and gave currency to its belief 
in its verity. Mr. Zieback ironically inquired if Gov. Banks 

— 13 — 



did not place his signature to the Act providing for the Two 
Year Amendment. "Did he not allow the Americans of Mas- 
sachusetts in 1856 to nominate him for President." It is 
simply ridiculous to assert or argue that he occupies any 
different position now. The people are not practiced upon by 
any such attempts at deception. Republicans may employ 
whatever arts they please to banish the Dark Lantern Spectre 
from their midst, but it will avail them nothing. Like Banquo's 
Ghost it will not down at their bidding. 

The attempt, and not the deed, confounds them. 

Mr. Zieback was a true prophet as readers of the dispatches 
from Chicago to the eastern press between May 10 and 20, 
1860, well know. 

In March Mr. Clark Dunham had countered the attacks 
of the Democrats by the assertion that Massachusetts had 
merely followed the example of South Carolina which had 
had such a statute for some time. The Republican state con- 
vention of Ohio specifically cited the act of South Carolina 
in its platform. A German citizen of Cleveland addressed a 
letter to the Secretary of State of that state and elicited from 
him a letter denying that there was an act in force in that state 
discriminating against foreign-born citizens as was done in 
Massachusetts. He stated that there was such an act passed 
in 1784, but that it was later repealed. Aliens, he declared, 
had, or could have all the rights of native born in South 
Carolina as soon as they secured their papers or certificates 
of naturalization. An article in the Cincinnati Enquirer setting 
forth the above facts was extensively reprinted in the Demo- 
cratic press of the state. The Republicans did not exploit the 
fact. On September 8 "A German" published a long letter in 
the Campaign State Journal setting forth the same facts, dis- 
cussing acutely the acts of the two states. 

When Mr. Rusch began his speaking tour, August 31, Mr. 
Louis Schade of Burlington, whose appeal to the foreign-born 
in May we have already noticed,"* sallied forth and challenged 
Mr. Rusch to enter the lists with him. They broke lances 
more or less intermittently during September. We shall see 

•'Geschichtsbl'dtier Of. Cit., p. 253-256. 

— 14 — 



that the piece de resistance of Mr. Schade's speeches was 
invariably the "Two Year" Amendment. 

When the campaign was approaching its culmination and 
the lines were closing- for the final clinch, Mr. Will Porter, 
editor of the State Journal, who had a lynx eye for the central 
facts in controversy and a long memory for troublesome facts, 
concluded that the energies of the faithful should be stirred 
and the doubtful aroused to active effort and he printed the 
following : 

THAT "amendment." 

That infamous proscriptive proposition, recently adopted 
by the Black Republicans of Massachusetts, and thus 
incorporated into their Constitution, is as follows: 

"No person of foreign birth shall be allowed to vote, nor 
shall he be eligible to office, unless he shall have resided 
zi*ithin the jurisdiction of the state for two years subsequent 
to his naturalisation, and shall be otherwise qualified ac- 
cording to the constitution and the laws of the Common- 
wealth." 

This is the Republican doctrine in regard to adopted 
citizens. A runaway slave can vote just as soon as a 
native white man. but an Irishman, a German, or other 
foreign-born citizen is insulted and degraded below the 
Slave. Such is black Republicanism. 

Mr. Porter's editorial was immediately reprinted in many 
of the Democratic papers throughout the State, precisely as 
printed by the Campaign Journal, sometimes with heavier 
faced type ad terrorem. Mr. Porter's brief subjoined com- 
ment contained a stinger designed to arouse Germans and 
Southerners and anti-abolitionists to wrath. 

From the date of the protest of the Germans of Boston in 
February against the enactment of the "Two Year" Amend- 
ment in Massachusetts, a major, if indeed not the paramount 
offense, to the minds of Germans was the gross discrimination 
favorable to Slaveholders and Negroes and against Germans. 
Under the terms of the Amendment and the general law a 
Slaveholder with his slaves from the rice swamps of South 
Carolina or the pine barrens of Georgia might emigrate to 
the Old Bay state and a year's residence would enable master 
and slaves, all and several, to vote and to hold office in the 

— 15 — 



great Commonwealth of the Puritans ; but the finest flowers of 
the ancient universities of Germany, her Ulumincti, her literati 
and savants, such as Professor Karl Follen, Dr. Reinhard 
Solger, Editor Karl Heinzen, Dr. Adolph Douai, sometime 
residents of Boston, not to mention such notables as Julius 
Goebal, Francis Lieber, Friedrich Kapp, Gustav Koemer. J. 
B. Stallo and Carl Schurz who might have wished to enjoy 
the culture and citizenship of Massachusetts, would have been 
shut out and denied such high privilege, until they could have 
certified an American residence of at least seven years. The 
discrimination was so gross that it provoked the ire of phil- 
osophers and saints no less than wrath of common yeoman. 

For reasons already set out at some length" Abolitionism 
was the veritable Black Beast in current politics in Iowa. The 
industrial, political and social equality of whites and blacks 
thereby entailed, or earnestly believed to be a direct and inevit- 
able consequence of emancipation of the southern slaves was 
an unspeakable abomination to the major portion of the electors 
of Iowa. The Puritans of New England, and of Massachu- 
setts in particular, had always been foremost in the agitation 
for the Abolition of Slavery and the greater number were 
indifferent or reckless with respect to the manner thereof, 
whether with compensation or no, whether gradually or sud- 
denly ; and Republicanism was markedly colored and apparently 
controlled by anti-slavery leaders whose views seemed to smack 
strongly of Abolitionism of the radical sort. As Know- 
Nothingism in its most virulent form was rampant and tri- 
umphant in New England no less than Abolitionism, the con- 
clusion that Republicanism would conclude in Iowa as it had 
in Massachusetts seemed to be a fair, if not an imperative 
inference from the general facts in the situation. The Demo- 
cratic press of Iowa and the Democratic speakers neglected 
few opportunities to point out the facts and to enlarge ferv- 
ently upon their significance. Two illustrations may be profit- 
ably examined. 

During July The Courier of Boston, one of the staunch 
supporters of Governor Banks of Massachusetts, expressed its 

* Ibid, ■p. 261-268. 

— 16 — 



views upon the status and privileges enjoyed by Negroes in 
Massachusetts. One paragraph of the editorial was extensiv- 
ely quoted and commented upon in Iowa : 

Here the colored man votes ; here colored children and 
white children go to the same schools ; here the races are 
allowed to intermarry, and as we have seen, they do not 
fail to avail themselves of their privilege. And there 
is nothing in the laws of the state to prevent the colored 
man's serving on the jury, if the subordinate function- 
aries on wlioni the duty of selecting jurymen is devolved, 
chooses to put him there. The black man here stands 
on a perfect equality with the white man, except that he 
cannot serve in the militia ; and for this the United States 
are responsible and not the states. 

This was an explicit assertion of the existence of a con- 
dition and a downright declaration of the propriety and benefi- 
cence of race equality. The Courier's frank and free expres- 
sion was seized upon by The Democrat as if it were an 
official preliminary announcement of the program of the 
Republican party. Mr. Porter reprints its comments in the 
Campaign State Journal [Aug. 4], some of which are repro- 
duced. [The italics are Mr. Porter's] : 

A similar policy is sought to be established in other 
states as soon as the leaders of the great oppo- 
sition deem it prudent, it will be the prominent plank in 
their platform. We are aware that many of our Repub- 
ican friends deny the doctrine of negro equality in this 
country 

Actions speak louder than words. When the Repub- 
licans of Massachusetts say by their actions that a Negro 
is as [good^ as a white man, and better than a foreign- 
born white man, no honest man will fail to understand 
them. The Negro there marries the white woman ; there 
the Negro votes, while the naturalized white man is denied 
that privilege. Is not the tendency of Republicanism to- 
wards the equality of the races, or the exaltation of the 
Negro above the white man? Are there not in our midst 
those who do not hesitate to speak of the Negro in terms 
of equality? Are they not without a single exception, 

"> The writer is not certain as to the locus of The Democrat. There 
were at least five papers so named published in the state at the time. 

— 17 — 



Republicans in politics? Is there not a meaning in all 
this? 

We hold that the white man is superior to the Negro; 
made so by God Himself, in the endowment of His 

creatures ; and this is the real issue between the 

Republicans and the Democrats 

This sort of direct and open appeal to race prejudice was 
frankly displayed in two articles reprinted in The Fort Dodge 
Sentinel in its issues of August 13 and 27. The first one fol- 
lowing was reprinted from some Exchange: 

Massachusetts Suffrage: — German Voter — I wish to 
deposit my vote, sir. 

Inspector — How long have you been in the state? 

German — Almost seven years. 

Inspector — You can't vote. 

Negro — Hello, Sam. Is you gwine for to vote, today? 

Sam — T doesn't know, chile, Ise only been heah free 
days. 

Negro — Dat doesn't make a diff.-a-bitterance heah, jis 
go right up an' vote. 

The extract which follows is taken from an article of some 
length entitled : "A Catechism for Young Republicans." As 
in the one just cited, so in the Catechism it is manifest that 
the "Two Year Amendment" is the baseline of its composition 
and the cause of irritation. 



Who gave the Negro the right of suffrage in Massa- 
chusetts and di'^franchised the foreigners? 

The black Republicans. 

Who are in favor of giving to Negroes the right which 
thev refuse to foreign-born citizens? 

The black Republicans. 

******** 

Who voted against admitting Minnesota as a free state? 

The black Republicans. 

Who voted against admitting Oregon as a free state? 

The black Republicans. 

Who introduced a bill in the Legislature of Ohio 
flowa?] to strike the word "white" from our state con- 
stitution ? 

The black Republicans. 

— 18 — 



Who believe that the Constitution of the United States 
is a league with Hell and a covenant with the Devil? 
The black Republicans. 

Who are in favor of "letting the Union slide.*'? 

The black Republicans. 
The latter interrogatory refers to a much quoted remark 
alleged to have been made some years before by Governor 
N. P. Banks of Massachusetts in a passionate speech denounc- 
ing the aggressions of the Slavocrats and was cited to arouse 
the animosity of the ardent lovers of the Union among all 
Conservative classes. As the author of the remark had that 
year placed his signature to the "Two Year" Amendment its 
quotation was expected to have various reactions that would 
impel dubious voters and Germans in particular to desert the 
Republican party and support Democratic principles and can- 
didates. 

Whenever political partizans break out in "poetry" as such 
eflfusion or doggeral is euphemistically called we usually may 
be certain that public feeling is running high and strong and 
the ardent patriot has recourse to rhymed verse as the only 
adequate mode of expression of the force and fervor of his 
feelings. We encounter not a little verse in the campaign, 
most of it flat and inane— but its frequent occurrence indicates 
how seriously public agitation had disturbed sensibilities. The 
points emphasized in the "Catechism" just cited, were reen- 
forced by a poetaster in a jingle which was entitled — "Black 
Republican Alphabet"— and published in the last issue of The 
Campaign State Journal.^ Portions follow: 

A is for Argument — we've only one 

The Almighty Nigger and then we are done. 
K is for Kirkwood, our Know Nothing Knave, 

Who'd treat a u>Iiite foreigner, worse than a slave. 
M is a Mixture, as when black and white 

Exhibit their tastes and in marriage unite. 
N is the Nigger, we fondly adore 

Without him we know that our party's no more. 
O is for Oberlin — model of right 

Where black folks are always a peg above white. 

8 September 22, 1859. 

— 19 — 



R is for Rnsch, lager beer is his forte, 

Hoodwinking Germans to get their support. 

U is for Union, the patriot's pride 

But negro equality, or, "let her slide." 

Here again the major matters in contemplation were the 
status of the Negro and the status of the Alien — and the 
Germans are the ones chiefly in mind. Here again the im- 
mediate object was the arousement of race prejudice and race 
pride of the Germans. And again it was the act of Massa- 
chusetts that discriminated against the foreign-born, while 
slaves and slaveholders enjoyed the maximum of privileges of 
the most favored citizens within that state, that constituted the 
baseline and the background of the rhymster's thought. 

Sundry additional illustrations might be given to show that 
Democratic partisans kept the Constitutional Amendment of 
Massachusetts constantly in the forefront of public discussion 
throughout the campaign. One more is given to demonstrate 
that leaders as well as the lesser folk rang the changes upon 
the act of the Old Bay State, appealing directly to race pre- 
judice and passion to arouse the Germans and incite them to 
secede from the Republican ranks. 

General A. C. Dodge was the Democratic candidate for 
Governor. He was a son of the South and knew the prejudices 
of her emigrant sons in Iowa. Reports or summaries of his 
speeches in the campaign are usually meagre and, if in the 
Republican press, partial and unfair. I have come upon a 
generous report of his speech at Dubuque, September 10, in 
The Dubuque Herald [Sept. 14]. He met in the County 
Court House in joint discussion, his opponent, Mr. Samuel J. 
Kirkwood, who, like himself, was a son of the Old South. 
Gen. Dodge divided his time about equally between national 
and local issues. He opened with some caustic observations 
upon the "unjustifiable and outrageous" issues and arguments 
urged by Mr. Jas. W. Grimes and his co-laborers in 1854. 
whereby the Democratic party and Gen, Dodge, then the senior 
Senator of Iowa in the national council at Washington, were 
driven from the seats of authority in Iowa and Washington. 
After attacking the Republicans for their mal-administration 

— 20 — 



of state affairs since the triumph of the Republicans in 1854, 
and defending his and his party's course respecting slavery, 
he concluded with what we may properly assume was the 
• climax of his direct appeal to the electors, as follows : 

He said the Republican party sought to elevate the 
Negro to an equality with the white race. In Massa- 
chusetts they have given the Negro equal rights with the 
native-born citizens, while the foreigner, who has com- 
plied with our laws and sworn allegiance to our institu- 
tions, is compelled to undergo a probation of a 2 years' 
before he can exercise the right of suffrage. In Iowa 
the same party attempted to confer equality upon the 
Negro, but fortunately, the people were not prepared for 
their own degradation, and maintaining a sense of duty 
and decency, refused to swallow the nauseous prescription 
compounded by Grimes and Co., and indignantly repu- 
diated the proposition. 

We shall have occasion later to consider General Dodge's 
views and career as a Senator from Iowa with special reference 
to their bearing upon the interests and prejudices of the 
Germans. There was a revival of much of the argument and 
appeal made in the campaign of 1854 to allure the German 
vote from the Democratic camp. His opening remarks at 
Dubuque indicate pretty clearly that the method of the defeat 
of his party in 1854 still rankled, and knowing his audience 
and the electorate of Dubuque county to be nearly one half 
foreign born, it is not difficult to imagine the contempt and 
scorn with which he dwelt upon the pharisaical piety and pre- 
tenses of the puritanical partizans of Republican propaganda 
and their course in the passage of the "Two Year Amendment. 
It is not extravagant to presume that it was the damage done 
the Republicans by the persistent reiteration of the contemptu- 
ous comments of Messrs. Dodge and Schade upon the Act 
of Massachusetts that incited the Republicans to renew the 
bitter attacks of 1854 and explode again under General Dodge 
the charges that probably were decisive facts in 1854 in driv- 
ing a sufficient number of Germans from the Democratic party 
to elect Mr. James W. Grimes Governor of Iowa — but of this 
more later. 

— 21 — 



IV. 

In 1857, soon after the case of Dred Scott was decided 
at Washington, the readers of Republican and anti-slavery 
papers in Iowa were informed that a direct result, if not the 
immediate object of that momentous decision, was the degrada- 
tion of the foreign-born below the Negro — worse indeed, it 
was the design to place the foreigner on a level with the 
negro as h'^ was when first imported from the wilds of Africa 
— and that by said decision the foreigner was, or could be 
forever debarred from the status and immunities of citizenship. 
Thus the Dubuque Daily Times argued with great fervor in 
June and July, 1857. The particular contention then so earn- 
estly urged was not, so far as I have observed, generally revived 
in 1859, although we shall see the contention was specifically 
made and very commonly implied in much of the argument 
during the campaign before and after the state conventions of 
both the major parties. 

There was not a little in Judge Taney's celebrated analysis 
that gave more than colour to the assertion of the Times. 
The power of Congress over the admission of aliens to our 
national citizenship is plenary. No one can acquire the status 
of national citizens from without save by and with the consent 
of Congress ; and such was the essence and the substance of 
Judge Taney's ruling as regards Negroes. The actions of 
this or that State in the North, e. g. Massachusetts, in accord- 
ing local or state citizenship, did not and could not clothe 
Negroes with national status as citizens. And, of course, the 
States as such had no more power as respects aliens. 

The publication of Secretary Cass' letter to Felix LeClerc 
brought the status of both Germans and Negroes again into 
the foreground of public interest and elicited some sharp com- 
ment from Republican editors.® The joint interest of Germans 
and anti-slavery champions in the Cass-LeClerc doctrine was 
immediately suggested and enforced by a spirited defense 
thereof by the Douglas organ of Washington, D. C, The 
States. Mr. Howell under the picturesque heading "The Nig- 

9 Geschichts blatter Op. Cit.. 268-276. 
— 22 — 



g-er in the Woodpile," thus revives the argument of 1857 
[July 2]. 

Who would have supposed — what man of merely ordi- 
nary sagacity can now conceive, that there is any con- 
nection between this question in relation to foreigners 
and the everlasting negro question? All our readers, we 
doubt not, are ready to say that there is not the slightest 
nor the remotest connection between these questions. But 
let them wait a little bit. Let them read the following 
article from the Washington States, thhe capital Douglas 
organ, and they will learn a new lesson upon the con- 
nections and ramifications of the nigger question. Let 
our German friends and naturalized and unnaturalized 
foreigners of all countries read and ponder this article 
from the organ of the Douglas Democracy. There is no 
equivocation about it. for that paper not only finds a 
close connection between the two subjects, but it directly 
compares the condition of the foreigner with that of the 
Negro slave, and not only so, but actually asserts, in so 
many Vi'ords, that "the cases are identical." Read the 
Cass doctrine as enforced and illustrated by the Central 
organ of the Douglas Democracy. The States holds forth 
thus : 

In Prussia, every male child is born a soldier. The 
King has a claim upon him for a certain number of 
years of military duty wliich is just as valid as the 
claim of a \'irginian to a slave cliild for life is valid 
by the Constitution of the Union. 

If a male quits his realm, at whatever age, without 
having discharged such duty, he is ever liable for its 
performance, either personally or by a substitution, 
upon re-entering the realm. 

No obligations which he can take upon himself to 
another country, and no protection which such coun- 
try can extend to him, can impair this claim, because 
it is of anterior existance. 

For instance, if a male slave of Virginia, — one 
of Mr. Botts*, for instance — were to escape from its 
owner, proceed to Prussia and there become the sub- 
ject of the crown, and subsequently return to Vir- 
ginia, it is likely that he would be restored to Prussia 
upon demand that he is a Prussian subject? 

The notion is too absurd to be entertained by a 
— 23 — 



rational beinp;. Old Virginia would surrender her 
existence before she would surrender him. 

The cases are identical. So long as the Slave 
remained under the jurisdiction of Prussian law, or 
out of the confines of the United States, so long 
would his master be without a remedy for his wrong ; 
and so long as the Prussian, who owed military ser- 
vice, remains in the United States, or without the 
confines of Prussia and the Germanic Confederation, 
so long is he secure from the exactions of the sov- 
ereign in whose realm he was born. 
The condition of the foreigner is identical with that 
of the slave, says the States, and being born slaves their 
oath of allegiance to the government of this country does 
not entitle them to the liberties, rights and privileges of 
American citizens any more than it entitles a "fugitive 
slave" from Virginia to such rights and immunities of 
free citizenship. 

That is not only the doctrine of the Douglas organ, 
but it is substantially the doctrine of the Buchanan wing 
of the Democracy, also, as expounded by Cass. And it 
results from the fact that the Democracy of this country, 
deriving its principles and doctrines from Southern lead- 
ers, regard the foreigner as on a level with a slave. Mr. 
Butler, one of their great and honored leaders from South 
Carolina, announced this doctrine publicly on the floor 
of the Senate of the United States without rebuke from 
any of his Democratic brethren. He declared, in so many 
words, that the European population of this country were 
not superior to the Negro slaves on Southern plantations. 
y\nd, looking at the matter in that light, the slave-holding 
leaders of the Democracy hold that the despots of Europe 
have the same right to the services of their escaped sub- 
jects in this country that a Virginia slaveholder has to 
those of his "fugitive slave." 
The foreign born residents in Iowa in 1859 had the point 
of Secretary Cass' doctrine brought close home to them again 
in July. A clothing merchant of Iowa City, a Mr. Cahn, sold 
his business and had settled his affairs preparatory to return- 
ing to his old home in France, before the significance of the 
LeClerc letter was realized by the public. The announcement 
from Washington that our Government could not or would 
not protect naturalized citizens from adverse action by their 

— 24 — 



parent states for delinquent military service if the delinquent 
should venture within its jurisdiction, threw Mr. Cahn into 
utter confusion. The Republican press, of course, dwelt with 
much unction upon Mr. Cahn's dire predicament. "He is out 
of business and at a loss how to proceed," observed ^Ir. John 
Teesdale in The JVeeklv Citizen. "He feels that he and those 
similarly treated, have been abandoned by the land of their 
adoption ; a land to which they swore allegiance, under the 
supposition that an American citizen, guiltless of crime, would 
be protected by the flag of his country from the claims of 
foreign despots, who deny the right of men to himself, and 
trample upon inalienable prerogatives." 

Some of the interesting phases of the discussion produced 
by the Cass-LeClerc letter were 'forcibly exhibited in an 
editorial of Mr. John Teesdale in The loiva Weekly Citizen 
[July 20]. As it contains what purports to be an extract from 
a speech of j\Ir. Rusch, which he gave in Sherman Hall, Des 
Moines, on the evening of his nomination together with some 
typical comments upon the conduct of the Administration, the 
editorial is quoted at length : 

No Protection— Why ? 

There seems to be, at last, a glimmering of light touch- 
ing the causes that lead to the decision of Gen. Cass 
denying the naturalized citizens that protection abroad, 
to which it has hitherto been supposed that every Amer- 
ican citizen was entitled. "I am an American citizen," 
has been boastfully claimed as a passport to the favor and 
respect of every civilized ration. It needs qualification 
hereafter. Man must be able to say. "I am an American 
citizen by birth," or his citizenship is not worth a straw 
to him in the way of protection to him while in a foreign 
state. Mr. Rusch, the Republican candidate for Lt. 
Governor, in a speech delivered here, illustrated very hap- 
pily, the working of the rule laid down by Gen. Cass. 

As a foreigner by birth [said Mr. R.], I am liable on 
return to my native land to impressment in the military 
service of a country, all allegiance to which T was obliged 
to forswear before I could enjoy the privilege of citizen- 
ship here. And, having sworn allegiance to the American 
government, if the war of my native country is waged 

— 25 — 



against the land of my adoption, I am liable to be hung 
as a traitor if taken in arms against it. On the other 
hand, if I owe allegiance to my native land, and cannot 
absolve myself from it, I am liable to be hung if taken 
in arms against it. Thus it is hanging all the time ; and 
I am in the most wretched condition imaginable. 

This is the true statement of the case, the principle 
laid down by Gen. Cass. Such is the protection secured 
to the adopted citizen of the United States under the 
present Democratic administration. 

Not thus reasoned our government in the case of Koszta. 
He was not yet a citizen, in the broadest sense, for he 
had not taken out his final papers. But the flag of our 
country was his protection. He had taken the first step 
towards expatriation. His right to the protection was 
declared complete, and the country resounded wnth the 
praises of the gallant officer, who assumed the power to 
deliver him from the hands of Austria. 

As if to add insult to the injury, the Douglas Demo- 
cratic organ at Washington [The States], the "Ledger," 
at Philadelphia, and the other Democratic Journals, have 
attempted to defend the reasonings and position of Gen 
Cass, affirming that the relation between the naturalized 
citizen and the land of his birth, is analogous to that 
of the slai'e and the free blacks! The naturalized citizen 
owes service to his native government, and no relation- 
ship he may enter into abroad can absolve him. But if 
he goes back he must pay that service just as much as if 
he had never left. The free black may be recognized as 
a citizen in one of the free states, he may never have borne 
the yoke of bondage but. if he sets bis foot in a slave 
state his citizenship is lost, his claim to protection is lost, 
he becomes a chattel, and may be seized and sold, despite 
the protestations of the state to which he belongs, and 
the general government that has declared that the citizens 
of one state shall be protected in their rights in every 
state of the Confederacy. The parallel holds good with 
the escaping slave. His escape does not release liim from 
his obligation. In order to vindicate these arbitrary and 
oppressive claims, set up by the slave states. leading 
Democratic journals find it necessary to vindicate the po- 
sition of Gen. Cass and to justify the denial of protection 
to the natm^alized citizens who are called abroad. The 
doctrine is monstrously wicked and false, and deserves 
— 26 — 



to be reprobated by every man wbo respects himself or 

his country. 
The significance and worth of much of the argument of 
Messrs. Rusch and Teesdale will be considered or indicated 
later in presenting some of the contentions made in rejoinder 
by various defenders of the Administration. Mr. Teesdale 
suggests one inference from the position of The States which if 
warranted — and the logic of the law seemed clearly to author- 
ize such an inference — must have made the situation portrayed 
intensely disagreeable to European refugees from continental 
despotic governments — particularly Germans, Hungarians, 
Poles and Russians wdiose memories thronged with recollec- 
tions of the ruthless application of the principle adverted to. 
I refer to the feasibility of the seizure and enslavement of 
free blacks, emigrant from either Europe or any of the Free 
States of the North, should any go within the jurisdiction of 
the Slave States of the South. Austria, in the case of Martin 
Koszta, had carried such an exercise of sovereignty a step 
farther and had attempted to lay hands upon one of her 
refugees in a foreign jurisdiction. 

During the month of July there were few if any subjects 
which more seriously engaged the thought of Democrats and 
Republicans in Iowa than did the nature and consequences of 
the Cass-LeClere doctrine; and none other certainly elicited 
more instructive discussion.^" 

10 A mere catalog of the titles of editorials and reprints of articles 

dealing with the Cass-LeClerc letter found in two daily papers of eastern 

Iowa demonstrates the serious attention given the subject in Iowa. 
Thus in the Daily Express and Herald of Dubuque: 

July 1— American Citizenship in the Case of Adopted Citizens Recogn- 
ized by France.— The Right Surrendered by Cass Maintained by 
Everett.— A^. Y. Express. 

July 6 — Citizenship by the Cass Doctrine. 

July 7— Mr. John Hickman on the Cass Doctrine. 

July 7— The Precepts of the Cass Letter in Practice. 

July 8 — Letter from Governor Wise. 

July 8— Senator Douglas and the Rights of Naturalized Citizens. 

July IS-Well Said. 

July 15 — Naturalized Citizens. — Richmond (Va.) Whig. 

July 20— The Administration on Citizenship. 

July 27— The Naturalization Laws and Property in Kentucky. 

— 27 — 



We have seen how vigorously, not to say vehemently, Mr. 
J. B. Dorr, of the Express and Herald of Dubuque, assailed 
the national administration for issuing the LeClerc letter. Mr. 
Dorr contended that the majority of the Democratic editors 
of Iowa concurred with him in his criticisms ; and the actions 

Thus in The Daily Gate City of Keokuk: 

July 2 — A Nigger in the Woodpile. 

July 4 — The Cases are Identical. 

July 8 — Monarchical and Republican Views. 

July 8 — Hickman on the Cass Doctrine. 

July 12 — Botts and Wise vs. Cass. 

July 19 — The Naturalization Question. — General Cass on the Back Track. 

July 25 — Southern Laws for Aliens and Negroes. 

The last mentioned titles cited from both papers refer to a then-but- 
recently decided case by the Supreme court of Kentucky (White vs. 
White, Metcalf's Kentucky Reports, II, 185). A native of Ireland, but 
naturalized in this country died intestate in Kentucky. A brother 
resident in Ohio, who had taken the preliminary steps in naturalization 
took possession of some real estate situated in Kentucky, claiming title 
by right of inheritance. The law of that state denied the right of suc- 
cession to aliens, lands vesting in the commonwealth if the decedent 
owner died without direct issue. The widow pursuant to an act of the 
Legislature was granted title and brought suit to obtain possession. 
The court decided in her favor. The brother appealed to the Supreme 
Court. Pending the decision in the higher court the appellant completed 
the requirements for naturalization. Despite the latter fact the court 
refused to confirm his claim to the title to the real estate, holding that 
persons of foreign birth are prima facie aliens and the observance of 
sundry ceremonies in preparation for naturalization did not and could 
not remove anterior disabilities that interfered with the enjoyment of 
rights of inheritance, the franchise, office-holding, etc. 

The Gate City, in addition to the Kentucky case cited above refers 
to an interesting case decided in April in Mississippi denying to a free 
"white coloured" girl, one Nancy Wells, the daughter of a planter of 
Mississippi, the capacity to inherit property bequeathed her by her father 
who sometime before his death had, while in the state of Ohio emanci- 
pated her, the court holding that negroes under the laws of Missippi 
being incapable of enjoying rights of inheritance incident to complete 
civil status could not be endowed or clothed with such capacity in 
another jurisdiction. The courts ruling in that case gave substantial 
color to the contention of Mr. Teesdale referred to above. One of the 
three judges of the court dissented, however. (See Wm. Mitchell vs. 
Nancy Wells, George's Mississippi Reports, Vol. viii, p. 235.) 

— 28 — 



of the Democratic state convention would seem to confirm his 
assertion, for it demanded national protection for naturalized 
citizens abroad and this probably was but an echo of editorial 
opinion. Nevertheless there were a number of influentical 
Democratic editors who stood forth staunchly in defense of 
Secretary Cass. Among the latter was one whose name sug- 
gests that either he or his parents knew the marches of 
Germany. 

Mr. F. M. Zieback, editor of the Sioux City Register, on 
June 30 published a strong editorial on "The Liability of 
Naturalized Citizens." It was a solid argument, closely 
reasoned, firmly based on sound principles of international law. 
Each nation insists upon the sovereign right to determine its 
own affairs and regulate the rights and responsibilities of its 
own citizens or subjects and it brooks no interference from 
without. If any one dislikes local laws and obligations he 
may, if he can, avoid them by emigration, if he pleases, but 
he cannot, thereby, secure immunity from subsequent adverse 
action by going to another country and undergoing naturaliza- 
tion. Criminals and fugitives from justice cannot flee abroad, 
expatriate themselves and then return to their native jurisdic- 
tion wherein they ofifended and be allowed exemption from 
local criminal process because they assert American citizenship. 
No selfrespecting nation would concede such a claim. The 
United States has herself always observed this policy. The 
Martin Koszta case did not rest on other premises. Koszta 
had not returned to Austria. He was in the harbor of Smyrna 
within Turkish dominion ; and Captain Ingraham had merely 
insisted that Austria's warship had no jurisdiction whatever 
over American naturalized or inchoate naturalized citizens as 
Koszta then was, and he very properly demanded his instant 
release from the hold of the Hussar. 

At McGregor, in Clayton county, in the extreme opposite 
direction from Sioux City, another Democratic editor defended 
the Cass doctrine in an admirable fashion — Mr. A. P. Richard- 
son of the North Iowa Times. In the present writer's judg- 
ment no editor in Iowa in ante helium days excelled him in 
courtesy and sobriety, in solidity and impartiality in the discus- 

— a» _ 



sion of public and partisan questions, and few, if any, equaled 
him in discernment of the essentials and in the presentation 
of the basic considerations in public problems, and fewer 
equaled him in fairness, frankness and force with which he 
dealt with friends and opponents. Mr. Richardson was alertly 
interested in the grave question presented by Secretary Cass' 
letter, but he did not plunge headlong into the controversy as 
so many did. He awaited official explanations of the real 
purport of the LeClerc letter. Secretary Cass' letter to Mr. A. 
V. Hofer of Cincinnati, written June 14, convinced him that 
the public furore over the LeClerc letter was ill-founded and 
ill-advised. He could not conclude that Secretary Cass was 
a "'dotard" and the President a "coward ;" and the Hofer 
letter he pronounced a "sound document." 

His observations are so acute, searching and just and withal 
so pertinent to our study that liberal extracts are taken from 
his first expression on the subject, June 29, under the title, 
"Gen. Cass' Letter on Naturalization": 

In taking this stand we cannot be charged with a desire 
to conciliate an administration whose leading features 
this paper has emphatically condemned, nor will we be 
presumed to have that anxiety for the security of the 
adopted vote to the Democracy which many journals of 
our party seem so extremely solicitous to conciliate. As 
a member of the party we shall be glad to see its views 
supported by all the votes obtainable, but the idea of plac- 
ing the Government of the United States in a position, 
false in theory and utterly impracticable except upon the 
assumption that we have the power to regulate the afifairs 
of European governments, as well as our own, never was 
entertained by any teacher of politics whom we have lis- 
tened to. A good deal of bombast has been indulged in 
by partizans relative to the terrific strength of the Ameri- 
can Eagle and the saving grace of the American flag, but 
it will not do to fill our souls with the notion that every- 
body in the world is frightened at the screams of the 
one or awed into adoration at the sight of the other; we 
may as well at present confine our national policy to such 
limits as will win us the respect of the world 

After the higher-law ground taken by the Republicans 
on this question one might conclude that Gen. Cass had 

— 30 — 



turned over to the tender mercies of trans-Atlantic tyrants, 
all naturalized citizens of the United States who may 
have occasion to go back to the country of their birth. 
This opportune letter has furnislicd them a splendid pre- 
tense to strike at tiie removal of, or to offset rather, the 
odium which a Massachusetts Legislature has attached 
to their party ; and though they arc willing in New Eng- 
land, that a German citizen of the United States shall be 
compelled to stay two years in the country without the 
exercise of a single right of citizenship, subject at the 
same time to various duties, "taxed with(uit representa- 
tion," and all that, yet when one of these same citizens — 
not good enough to rote zvith the BLACKS of NEW 
ENGLAND — goes to Europe — whether bent on busi- 
ness, pleasure or mischief, it matters not — and when it 
is shown there that he was a deserter from the army at 
the time of his emigration to this country and owed ser- 
vice to the Government he abjured when his application 
for citizenship was being made in our own courts, then, 
forsooth, the cannon of the Federal Union must be bur- 
nished up and WAR declared to protect his sacred person ! 
We call this sudden exhibition of admiration for the 
"rights of the adopted citizens" about as splendid a piece 
of Republican hypocrisy as that versatile party has ever 
shown. 

What says Gen. Cass? Turn to his letter and read every 
word of it carefully and you will find the substance of it 
contained in these sentences : 

If. at the time, they were in the army, or actually 
called into it. such emigration and naturalization do 
not exempt them from the legal penalty which they 
incurred CY THEIR DESERTION. But this 
penalty may be enforced against them whenever they 
shall voluntarily place themselves within the local 
jurisdiction of their native country and are proceeded 
against according to law. 

Can anything be plainer than this? In this "land of 
the free" a deserter is shot, but it is now proposed to 
engraft upon our national policy the Quixotic doctrine 
that a deserter from the European armies may escape to 
this country, return to his old home and wrapping the 
"Stars and Stripes" around him, bid defiance to the au- 
thorities there, and if necessary call the fleets and armies 
of the Union to bombard Vienna or Paris or Berlin ! We 
— 31 — 



would commend any man for deserting tyranny but we 
would advise him to stay away from the tyrant ; he has 
committed a crime against the Government and miHtary 
order demands his punishment. The Constitution of the 
United States is not a "pool of Siloam" in which all po- 
litical liabilities may be washed away, and the men who 
assume it to be such a healing bath, whether native or 
adopted citizens, will discover ere long that they have 
sufifered their impulses to carry them beyond a safe line 
of policy. The naturalized citizen should be a CITIZEN 
indeed, attached to the country of his adoption, and in- 
terested in her welfare — he must necessarily see that our 
Government cannot lay down any other principles than 
those uttered by Gen. Cass without involving this country 
in destructive wars to establish a position in violation of 
all comity due to one nation from another. We may as 
well assert that the removal of a New Yorker to Iowa 
and the exercise of citizenship here, would relieve him 
from all liabilities, civil and criminal which he may have 
incurred prior to his removal ! 

The "foreign vote" in our country is strong, and we 
are sorry to see, in many instances it is clannish; all par- 
ties want it to help them on the road to office. Even the 
Know-Nothings, with J. Minor Botts at their head, are 
hurling their javelins at Gen. Cass and the Administra- 
tion, for not "protecting" in Europe, a class of men, who 
by their Order, must stay 21 years here without the exer- 
cise of any right except the payment of taxes. 

When the circumstances of the publication of the foregoing 
editorial are realized it must be deemed not only admirable in 
logic and tone, but remarkable. Mr. Richardson was the 
publisher of a partisan Democratic paper. He was a partisan 
of Senator Douglas and a critic of Buchanan's administra- 
tion. He was prominent in state politics and was himself 
prominently mentioned for the Lieutenant Governorship in 
the then recent state convention at Des Moines. He was a 
resident of Clayton county where the Germans and Irish were 
almost as numerous as they were in Dubuque county adjoining 
on the South. The Republican and anti-slavery press of the 
entire North was almost unanimous in denouncing the Cass- 
LeClerc letter, which was not strange when such staid and 
sober journals as the N. Y. Evening Post joined in the hue 

— 32 — 



and cry. Moreover the great majority of the Democratic 
papers of the North joined the Opposition critics. Party con- 
ventions and conclaves had by countless resolutions condemned 
the Secretary of State. But Mr. Richardson, while not indif- 
ferent to party interests, believed that success should be bot- 
tomed upon sound principles and he was certain that after the 
"noise and confusion" of debate had passed both time and 
his critics would ultimately endorse the views of the venerable 
Secretary of State. 

Mr. J. B. Dorr felt the force of the argument of "the inim- 
itable Richardson" and on July 6 The Dubuque Herald con- 
tained a vigorous rejoinder. He seeks to differentiate "duties 
and penalties" that one nation may and may not exact of its 
citizens and to demonstrate how far allegiance extends and how 
far one nation may expect another nation to respect its local 
laws and pretensions. His reasoning reflects much of current 
opinion but it was fallacious, confusing governmental capacity 
with wisdom of exercise of powers. Mr. Richardson answered 
in another forceful leader and concludes his extended discus- 
sion with a clincher, namely that the United States had always 
enforced the Cass doctrine, as lowans should know for their 
own Code contained citations from Peters Reports showing 
the rulings of the national courts so holding.^^ He caps his 
point by reference to the notorious "General" Walker, who 
pleaded exemption from prosecution in our courts when on 
trial for his filibustering expeditions on ground of "right of 
expatriation," having been "President of Nicaragua," but the 
court refused to concede such a plea in defense. Mr. Richard- 
son concludes as follows : 

"We hope the whole world will abandon the absurd feudal- 
isms which disgrace it, but while each country insists upon 
retaining its own follies, we had better confine ourselves to per- 
suasion than to the assertion of Rights which we have not the 

11 Code of 1851, p. 567. One paragraph is especially pointed and 
pertinent. It begins : "A citizen of the United States by becoming a 
citizen of another state, does not thereby cease to be a citizen of the 
United States, nor is he absolved from his original allegiance." Murray 
and Charming Betsy, 2 Cranch, 120. 

— 33 — 



power to vindicate. If the Germans of Iowa had 50,000 votes 
we would not attempt to win them by representing that our 
Government is bound to go to war to defend them, while 
there, from the operation of the laws local to central Europe. 
If Naturalization here is not worth having they should always 
remember that it is not forced upon them. 

General Cass is right." 

The Secretary of State had another stout champion in The 
Democratic Clarion of Bloomfield. As early as May 25 [before 
the LeClerc letter had attained general notoriety] an editorial 
dealing with "American Citizenship" discussed the effect of 
naturalization in Canada upon the status of a native of Illinois 
who subsequently desired to enjoy the rights of his native 
citizenship. Federal cases were cited showing that our national 
courts had adopted the English principle of citizenship. Ex- 
patriation in and of itself could not absolve a man from the 
obligations of his native citizenship. Without protest or adverse 
query The Clarion points out that England's much denounced 
policy, "Once a citizen always a citizen," contrary to the popular 
impression is "our own." 

On July 6 The Clarion came out in a vigorous defense of 
Secretary Cass. It assailed the assumption and assertions of 
the Republicans that the venerable Secretary of State had 
repudiated the position and policy of Secretary Marcy. The 
latter, it pointed out, in a letter in 1854 to Mr. Jackson, our 
minister at Vienna, in an exactly analogous case, had taken 
precisely the same stand as his successor in office had taken in 
the letter to Felix LeClerc. Moreover, it was contended Secre- 
tary Marcy 's celebrated letter to Hiilsmann, defending Captain 
Ingraham and the concurrence of Government in the rescue 
of Martin Koszta, was not a case in point. 

In another extended editorial, a week later. The Clarion, 
taking its text from Vatell, enlarges upon the points already 
made in defense of the Administration. After citing Marshall's 
ruling [Murray vs. Charming Betsy, 2 Cranch 64] and Story's 
[The Santissima Trinidad, 7 Wheaton 548] and referring 
again to the Illinois case, mentioned on May 25, as warrant- 

— 34 — 



ing the view announced by Secretary Marcy, the editorial thus 
concludes : 

...... while we recognize the doctrine [right of 

emigration and expatriation subject to conditions], we 
exact its consequences from other nations. But, as has 
been seen, we do not allow our citizens the right of ex- 
patriation when under disabilities; when guilty of a crime, 
—without holding them accountable whenever we obtain 
control over them ; not even though a native citizen had 
thus left us and become a citizen of England— notwith- 
standing this fact, we may lawfully punish him whenever 
he comes under the control of our municipal laws. This 
is the theory of the law of nations. Mr. Cass holds this 
view m his letter to Hof er ; not as a legislator, but as an 
officer of the Government, expounding the law of nations 
in connection with our own. If the people of this country 
do not like this state of things it is for them to attempt 
to change it. But yet it is certain, that we, as one nation, 
never attempted to add. nor can we add a jot or title to 
the Necessary and Voluntary International Code ; nor have 
we a right to meddle with the municipal regulations of 
other states, the irresponsible gabble of the deluded en- 
thusiasts to the contrary notwithstanding. 

In the issue for July 20, The Clarion issued "A Challenge," 
which indicated both the fibre and the vigor of its faith in the 
righteousness of its defense of Secretary Cass. The editors 
offered to support the Republican ticket openly if the critics 
of the Cass-LeClerc letter could show two facts : First, if the 
Government had "ever held a doctrine as favorable to the 
naturalized citizen as that announced in the Cass-Hofer letter ;" 
and. Second, if Webster and Everett had ever maintained any 
different position, namely "that naturalized citizens voluntarily 
returning to their native country, may be lawfully subjected to 
all liabilities of other native citizens." So far as I have been 
able to discover no Republican editor or party champion 
accepted the gauge. 

The editors of The Clarion would have been partially 
worsted [at least technically] had their challenge been accepted 
in respect of their first proposition ; and curiously enough by 
official utterances of President Buchanan himself. On five 
separate occasions, while he was Secretary of State under 

— 35 — 



President Polk he had squarely asserted the right and the 
obHgation of the United States to afford equal and complete 
protection to native and naturalized citizens abroad, even 
though they return to and sojourn in their native land. In his 
last annual message as President, it is interesting to note, Mr. 
Buchanan seemed to reiterate the same view — but studied in 
the light of the spirited and extensive interchange of letters 
elicited by the LeClerc letter, one is inclined to doubt vi^hether 
he intended his language to be as sweeping as he clearly 
intended his assertions between 1845-1849.^^ 

The disputants in 1859 did not decide and they did not 
dissipate the controversy over the protection of our naturalized 
citizens abroad. Their status and range of rights when sojourn- 
ing within the jurisdiction of their parent states continued 
for many a year to be a vexatious question in the Chancelleries 
of Europe. In fact it has continued to vex our statesmen 
down to recent days. When the Democrats regained posses- 
sion of the Presidency in 1884, for the first time after the 
retirement of Mr. Buchanan, almost, if not the first question 
to engage the attention of Mr. Cleveland's Charge d'affaires 
at Berlin was the treatment of naturalized German-Americans 
and their children within the German Empire and the con- 
sideration of the response of the Imperial Secretary for Foreign 
Affairs to a letter addressed to the Foreign Office by the Am- 
erican Minister under President Arthur, Mr. John A. Kasson 
— who twenty-seven years before was Chairman of the Repub- 
lican State Central Committee of Iowa — then as later contend- 
ing that the policy of the German states was wrong in principle 
and harsh in practice.^^ 

V. 

There was no feature of Slavery in the United States that 
aroused more violent feeling among Germans, especially 
"Forty-eighters" and later refugees, than the Fugitive Slave 
law of 1850. There was not a little in that notorious act that 
reminded them of the forms of extradition of political agitators 

12 Moore's International Law Digest, vol. jii., p. 423-436, 552-576. 

"/tirf, p. 376-406. 

— 36 — 



more or less in vog-ue among the despotically governed states 
of continental Europe; and sundry phases of the practical 
execution of the law in the apprehension of fugitives aroused 
. the radical Germans to fury. 

During July the American anti-slavery press gave currency 
to some comments of Baron von Humboldt upon Slavery in 
the United States and Cuba, and especially to some of his 
criticisms of Daniel Webster because of his sanction of the 
Fugitive Slave Law. The noted German traveler and scientist 
had closely observed the economic and social effects of Slavery 
in the South American and Central American states and Cuba 
and had pronounced judgment against the institution. He 
had met the distinguished Senator from Massachusetts and 
admired greatly his abilities and career. But von Humboldt's 
admiration and respect were shattered by Webster's support 
of and vote for the Fugitive Slave Law. The distressing and 
dramatic seizures of fugitives thereunder in Boston, Phila- 
delphia, Cincinnati, Chicago, Milwaukee, in the decade suc- 
ceeding the Clay Compromise merely enhanced his feelings 
against what he called the "Webster law," von Humboldt 
believing that the law would not have been enacted had 
Webster thrown the weight of his great influence against it. 
Anti-slavery papers were not loath to reproduce and enlarge 
upon the distinguished German's views, as Mr. Frank W. 
Palmer did in the Dubuque Times [July 7]. 

The campaign of 1859 brought the Fugitive Slave law 
again prominently into the foreground of public debate in 
Iowa. General A. C. Dodge represented Iowa in the Senate 
at Washington in 1850. He had supported and voted for 
that bill and all the other bills comprising the Clay Compromise. 
Four years later, in a speech on the floor of the Senate [Feb. 
24, 1854] upon Douglas' Kansas-Nebraska bill, Senator Dodge 
openly proclaimed his pride in the fact that he and his colleague 
from Iowa, Gen. G. W. Jones, with Senator Sturgeon from 
Pennsylvania were the only northern senators who voted for 
the Fugitive Slave Law and all other parts of the Clay pact. 

Mr. Theodore Olshausen reminded the readers of Der De- 
mokrat of that notable utterance of the Democratic candidate 

— 37 — 



for governor and waxes in scorn as he thoujjht of its sig^nific- 
ance: 

Kin scln'Jner Ruhm das ; neben eincm, altcn Manne. der 
nicht mclir wusste, was er that, und einein andern "Iowa 
General," der stets der Macht nachlief, der einzige Frei- 
staatmann gewesen zu sein, der uns die Menschenjagd als 
Biirgerpflicht aufgcdrungen hat! 1st das ein Gouverneur 
fiir den freien Staat Towa. welcher seitdem diese beiden 
sclnveifwcdehidcn Scnatoreii. die beide mit Gesandtschafts- 
posten belohnt worden sind als seine X'ertreter im Senat 
enfernt hat? 

General Dodge, however, was no time-serving politician, of 
the weathervane variety. He did not higgle or haggle anent his 
action in 1850. He did not hedge against criticism nor attempt 
to get from under the burden of his views. Slavery, as an in- 
stitution, was to him personally an abomination. But as a 
public man and as a statesman he always frankly maintained 
the right of the slaveholder to protect and to recover in chat- 
tels; and in his judgment it was not a material objection in 
law or in public ethics, that human beings happened to con- 
stitute a part of the chattels in the South. Nor did the horrors 
of the execution of process lessen or militate against such 
right of recovery. The Union itself was the direct result of 
the recognition of such right, originating in a compromise 
whereby under the Constitution the states and national gov- 
ernment expressly agreed to protect and to secure slaveholders 
in their property. All the states under that compact deliber- 
ately bound themselves always to act diligently and in good 
faith in the fulfillment of such guarantee. Gen. Dodge felt 
himself morally as well as i)olitically l)ound to observe the let- 
ter and spirit of the constitutional guarantee thus agreed upon. 
Mr. Kirk wood and the majority of the Republican leaders 
in the campaign of 1830, while formally assenting to the legal 
obligations to return fugitive slaves to their Southern own- 
ers, could not. in view of the intense feeling against the ob- 
noxious law of 1850, resist the temptation to heckle Gen. 
Dodge in respect of his part in its pas.<;age and his public 
approval of the law. They constantly dwelt upon the act and 
the .ibotninations of the law's enforcement. Gen. Dodge car- 

— 38 — 



ried ihcir tactics into Africa. In the joint discussion at 
Oskaloosa (Aug. 15) he Inirlcd point blank at Mr. Kirkwood 
the question — Would he, Kirkwood, assist in the capture of 
a fugitive slave? Instantly, Mr. Kirkwood, son of a slave- 
holder of Maryland, though he was. replied that he would 
not interfere but he would not assist. Mr. Kirkwood then 
retorted with the same inquiry to Gen. Dodge — "the Cavalier" 
as he was currently called by Republicans. With royal certi- 
tude and vigor he replied that he would do whatever the law 
recjuired him to do. 

'J his dramatic rencontre between these two sons of the 
Old South in the jniblic forum at Oskaloosa was the sensation 
of the campaign. It was the background against which many 
a thrust and drive were made during August and September 
to attract or repel tlie German vote. Mr. Olshausen exclaims 
in disgust, in the same article from which we have quoted, 
above, at the s])ectacle of the (^.overnor of Iowa aiding in the 
return of a fugitive slave: 

General Dodge durchreist jetzt ilan Staat und will sich 
dadurch dem Volke als Gouverneur empfehlen, dass er 
laut crklart: Ich Augustus Caesar Dodge will per.sonlich 
an den Negerjagden theilnehmen u. die dcr Peitsche 
entlaufenen Sklaven iliren Ilerren, wieder zustellen. damit 
sie das \'erbrechen, die Friehiet zu lieben grausam an 
ihnen bestrafen — Sclbst in v^klavciistaaten gilt, trotz der 
lieblichen. eigentliiimlichen "Institution," das Sklavenein- 
fangen fiir verachtlich. 

Tst es moglich. dass irgend ein Deutscher einem solchen 
Manne seine Stimme giebt zu dem hochsten Rhrenposten 
im Staat? 

VI. 

On February 14, 1858. Senator Nicholas J. Rusch of 
Scott county presented in the State Senate a petition sent him 
by the Germans of Dubuque county asking the General As- 
sembly to instruct their Senators and to request the Repre- 
sentatives at Washington to support the then pending Home- 
stead bill. The incident is suggestive of the alert and constant 
interest of the Germans in the agitation for free homes for 
the landless. 

— 39 — 



The antagonism of slavocrats to the proposed "reform" 
as the demand for more liberal land laws was generally de- 
scribed by its promoters has already been briefly pointed out. 
Free homesteads meant free labor. Free labor would inevit- 
ably demonstrate its superior efficiency, and even though 
slowly would, certainly and silently, push south the northern 
frontiers of slavery. Leaders of the Southern States in Con- 
gress with a few exceptions had always stoutly opposed all 
proposed free land or homestead bills. 

North of Mason and Dixon's line and 36'' 30' Democrats 
gener:illy proclaimed themselves in favor of such beneficial 
legislation : but in the grand party maneuvers at Washington, 
es])eciariy in the final clinches in the latter days of each ses- 
sion of Congress when Administrative and budget bills were 
crowding to the fore, Northern Democrats usually voted with 
the Southern leaders: hence tlieir sobriquet "Doughfaces" and 
hence their embarrassment on the hustings. 

Here and tliere in Iowa Negrophobia induced outspoken 
opposition to the principle of the Homestead bill. Thus a 
week before the Democratic State Convention at Des Moines 
pronounced in its favor The Democratic Clarion at Bloomfield 
in an editorial on "Land for the Landless" opposed such a 
measure because manumitted slaves would thereby be free to 
go n]ion the public domain and preempt its choice acres along 
with the whites and the editors in their minds' eye saw an 
invasion of Negroes into the white man's fertile fields and they 
ask: "And what would be the tendency of free Negro labor? 
Clearly to degrade the white man. The former would work 
for half price; is indolent and irregular, and would be satisfied 
with the anomalous condition of Free Siavery." 

We have seen that the Democrats of Dubuque county, 
notwithstanding the ardent interest of the Germans in the 
matter omitted any mention of the Homestead bill in their 
county platform. Tt is not unlikely that Mr. Ben. M. Sam- 
uels, a son of Old Virginia whose pro-slavery prejudices were 
potent, governed in the premises, as he was the composer of 
the platform agreed upon. He was prominent at the con- 

— 40 — 



vention at Des Moines but the committee on resolutions did 
not dare ignore the popular demand for free homesteads. 

The Republicans were energetic and constant in chargmg 
the defeat of the Grow bills upon the Slavocrats and their 
Northern allies. General Dodge and his quondam Senatorial 
confreres were pilloried in the public forum and assailed with 
scornful comments. The foreign-born were constantly m 
mind. The columns of The Gate City illustrate this fact in 
convincing fashion. 

On Au<?ust 23 Mr. Howell tells his readers "Why They 
[Democratsl. Oppose the Homestead Bill" and begins by 
saying that "the Locofocos of the South opposed the Home- 
stead bill in a body because it does not promote the Interest of 
Slaveholders, and because they wish to sell the public lands 
and apply the proceeds to purchase the slaveholding island 
of Cuba.' He then cites Mr. Vallandingham's reasons for 
opposing the bill. On the 25th he declares "that there is no 
question so important to the West" and reprints Grow's bill. 
The next day he returns to the subject and tells in details 
about "The Homestead Bill : How and Why It was Killed." 
The day following Mr. Howell renews the attack and under 
the title, "The Homestead Bill vs. the Cuba Bill." portrays 
the forces in opposition to the liberal policy of the Republicans. 
On August 26 Der Dcmokrat struck Gen. Dodge a heavy 
blow. H there was one matter more than another, respect- 
ing which the Democratic candidate for Governor prided him- 
self, it was his v>-ork on behalf of liberal land laws for the 
Western pioneers, and particularly in advocacy of the principle 
of free homesteads to actual settlers. Mr. Olshausen noting 
his claims in his campaign speeches reviews General Dodge's 
record in the latter days of his Senatorial career. 

On January 22, 1853, the Legislature of Iowa passed a 
joint resolution directing their Senators to exercise their offices 
at Washington to secure the passage of a bill granting free 
homesteads." "Diese Resolution wurde zwei Jahre bevor 
Dodge von Harlan als Senator abgelost ward nach Wash- 
ington eingesandt. Was that nun General Dodge um diese 

— 41 — 



Instructioncn der Legi-^latur in Ausfulirung zu bringen ? 
Brachte er eine 15ill in diesem Sinne in den Senat ein? 
Davon hat nie jcniand etwas geliort. Er sasz zwei Jalire 
im Senat, ohne je irgcnd etwas zu thun, um seinen Instruc- 
tioncn zu geniigen. Die benichtigte Bill uber Organization 
des Territoriums Nebraska brachte er in demsclben Jahre ein, 
abcr keine Ileimstiitte-Bill."' Mr. Ulshausen then points out 
that another Senator, and one too from the South, Andrew 
Johnson, of Tennessee, had been urging and pressing a bill 
in the Senate while General Dodge was in the Senate, and 
he concludes: "Was soil man nun davon halten" when he 
now claims to be "ein grosser Freund der freien Landver- 
theilung an wirkliche Ansiedler wahrend er zwei Jahre lan^ 
im Senat sasz, ohne einen Finger zu riihren, eine solche Bill 
durchzubringen." 

In a general way. at least in a political sense. Mr. Ols- 
hauscn, had deneral Dodge on the hip and easily threw him. 
Gen. Dodge had not pushed a bill of his own. or obviously 
promoted one of his colleagues, between January, 1853, and 
March 4. 18.^5. But he had introduced the original Nebraska 
bill which with the Douglas report and the Dixon amendment 
became a rock of offense to the entire North. Mr. Olshausen. 
however, was unjust; for General Dodge from the early days 
of his Senatorial career had been an active promoter of liberal 
land laws; in 1854 his Democratic friends gave him the title 
of "Father of the Homestead Law." When he decideil to 
accept the nomination for Governor in 185'^ he asserted in 
the statement given out by him, or his managers, that he was 
a friend of the Homestead bill "long before the birth of the 
Republican party." Mr. Olshausen had forgotten or over- 
looked General Dodge's advocacy of the Homestead bill in 
January and February, 1853. especially his strong speech on 
February 24, when he stood shoulder to shoulder with Senator 
Chase of Ohio, in demanding favorable action on the then 
pending measure. 

The lloickcyc. in General Dodge's home city of Burlington, 
also assailed him along the same line. Mr. Dunham was 

— 42 — 



more unkiiul and more sweeping in his assertions, and went 
much more into detail, enlarging upon the superficial adverse 
facts pointed out and completely ignoring the energetic advo- 
cacy of the Homestead law hy General Dodge throughout his 
entire public career and particularly his speech in the Senate 
soon after the Legislature of Iowa had given him instructions 
— a speech that not only fulfilled the letter but completely 
realized the spirit of the mandatory resolution of the General 
Assembly. 

VII. 

The display of nativistic prejudices and the counterplay of 
partizan tactics anent the Germans in the campaign of 1859, 
is exhibited in an interesting fashion in many ways but in 
none more characteristic and more instructive than in the 
darts and flings at their alleged lack of religious feelings and 
religious belief and their reputed bibulous habits. In their 
resentment of the course of so many Germans upon the ques- 
tion of Slavery, many of the Democratic papers threw dis- 
cretion to the winds and shot bolts that did as much harm 
to their own cause as damage to their opponents. Many of 
them became reckless, and some times malicious and mean 
in their comments. 

Davis county, the third county west from the Mississippi 
on the Missouri line was settled largely by Southern people 
and "Americanistic" notions were rampant among the voters. 
The Democratic Clarion, published at Bloomfield, the county 
seat, thus greeted [June 29] the announcement of the nomina- 
tion of Mr. Rusch as the Republican candidate for Lieuten- 
ant Governor: 

"N. J. Rusch we believe has always been a Red, alias 
Black, alias Free Thinking, alias Anti-Sunday, alias Anti- 
Bible, alias Anti-Maine law, alias Pro-Lager Beer Republican. 
It was necessary to nominate Mr. Rusch to retain the German 
Republicans of the state." 

It is difficult for persons familiar only with the liberal 
theology of the past decade to realize the intensity and viru- 

— 43 — 



lence of the religious and social prejudices to which the editors 
of the Clarion thereby directly appealed and sought to arouse. 

The harsh comment of The Clarion was equaled, and in 
some respects, excelled by The Sentinel of Maquoketa, the 
Democratic organ at the county seat of Jackson county, in 
Northeast Iowa, just South of Dubuque. It greeted the an- 
nouncement of ^Ir. Rusch's nomination with the following 
gentle observations : 

The Republicans and Negro lovers who consider a 
kinky darky far superior to a "Dutchman." have in this 
state nominated a German [Rusch], of Davenport for 
Lieut. Governor, with the view to secure the German vote 
for their ticket. These German ingrates are known a3 
busy-bodies, and mischief-makers in every community 
where they reside. They were driven out of Germany in 
'48 for their clannishness and meddlesomeness. They ig- 
nore the Bible, and all revealed religion, believe in no 
future state of rewards and punishments, and act on 
the infidel motto, "live while we live." They aim at 
anarchy in politics, morals, and religion, and are a curse 
to any country or communit)\ 

The sentiments of The Sentinel were so ruthless and its 
language so reckless as to make one conclude that the writer 
was a rabid "American" with lively recollections of an active 
membership in a Know Nothing lodge. An ordinary editor 
who cared a fiq- about the success of his political party and 
had the slightest appreciation of the nice and easily disturbed 
balance of popular passions and prejudices would not have 
thrown prudence to the dogs and vented feelings that af- 
fronted thousands of lusty voters who were quick to resent 
reflections upon their character and conduct as individual citi- 
zens. No one but a rabid radical would designate "'the forty- 
eighters" as busy-bodies and mischief-makers: because no one 
after a moment's consideration would thus have classed the 
thousands of I.'niversity men who made the larger proportion 
of the German refugees who fled the Fatlierland after the 
collapse of the Revolution of 1848 and settled in the states 
of the Lake region and the valleys of the Ohio and Missis- 
sippi rivers. 

— 44 — 



When Mr. Carl Serth started Das Iowa Volksblatt at Keo- 
kuk The Democratic Clarion again [Aug. 10] recalled that 
the Germans were an irreligious or "skeptical" folk; and 
dwelt upon the fact that Mr. Serth had but recently run foul 
of Mr. Henry Clay Dean, a noted [or notorious, according to 
one's tastes and predilections], clergymen and politician, high 
in the councils of the Methodist Church and of the Democratic 
party, in a religious controversy or debate in Keokuk. Mr. 
Serth, he asserts, had in consequence filled his columns with 
abuse of religion. The editorial of the Clarion closes with 
this sentiment: "Rusch and Serth of the Volksblatt both be- 
long to the 'higher law' party, avowed anti-Bible, anti-prophet 
men, men to whom Clay [Dean?] somewhat crushingly al- 
ludes." As one of the editors of the Clarion labored under 
the name of x\mos Steckel, his evident Teutonic ancestry might 
very appropriately have made him slightly more charitable 
and gracious in his assumptions. 

His appeal, however, was effective in his local environ- 
ment. His readers were in major part strict sectarians from 
the South or from the Middle States and New England 
who looked with grave disapproval, not to say abhorrence 
upon the alleged and much heralded atheistical views of Ger- 
man editors and German revolutionary refugees who made, 
perhaps, the laroer proportion of the active party workers 
among the Germans, especially in the eastern counties of Iowa. 

Such appeals and such arguments ad hominem in respect 
of the irreligion and radicalism ascribed to the Germans had 
their force and flavor greatly augmented by the fact that they 
were concomitants always of appeals and argimients relative 
to the irrepressible "Temperance" agitation against which 
the Germans then set their faces firm as flint. 

As already pointed out the Republicans were embarrassed 
by the vexatious liquor question. They had kept silent upon 
the matter at their state convention in constructing their 
platform. The Democrats on the contrary had spoken out 
plumply. The vast majority of the advocates of the "Maine 
Law," as the drastic prohibitory legislation of 1855 was then 

— 45 — 



commonly called, were conspicuous as Republicans, e. g., 
Senators Grimes and Harlan, Messrs. J- B. Grinnell, Hiram 
Price, et al. Mr. Rusch. the Republican candidate for Lieut. 
Governor, however, was not only a sturdy German, but as 
a member of the State Senate of Iowa, he had steadily worked 
to ''liberalize" [or, if viewed by an opponent, to "weaken"] 
the law of 1855 and mainly by his insistance, native wines 
and beer were exempted from the provisions of the law. The 
Democrats, although they usually opposed such legislation 
and that year denounced it as tyrannical made merry over Mr. 
Rusch's nomination, indulging, as we have seen in many a 
flout at the propriety of his candidacy in the face of the puri- 
tanical pretensions of his party. Mr. Rusch and Lager beei 
were tossed aloft in many a contemptuous phrase. " 

For example the sentiments contained in the subscriptions 
of two of the six cartoons with which Mr. Porter's Campaign 
Journal undertook to entertain or instruct the public and 
which we are informed were "designed and engraved at great 
expense" turn on the sorry predicament of a puritanical half- 
starved Know Nothing with his alleged abstemiousness when 

1* The vigor and variety of public interest and discussion were 
exhibited, as we have seen in sundry sorts of verse. The following 
stanzas of some doggeral appeared in the Campaign State Journal, 
August 4. It is utterly vapid but none the less significant by reason 
of that very fact: 

Samuel J. Kirkwood. 
How are you ragged Samuel? 
"I thank you, I am hearty — 
Prepared to quaff the Lager 
Of the wooly headed party." 
Hush, hush, hush, 
Lest you go it with a Rusch 

Up Salt River. 

***** 

I know that I shall conquer — 

"I shall conquer, for 
The great and mighty Leopold 

Is Austria's Emperor." 
Htish, hush, hush, 
You must go it with a Rusch 

Up Salt River. 

— 46 — 



offered a platter of food by a rotund, bibulous German for 
whom the elector is expected to vote. 

The propagandists of the "Temperance" cause could hardly 
be expected to rest easy: but as the large majority of them 
were in active svmpathv with the Anti-Slavery agitation, and 
Germans, when Republicans were intense, outspoken Aboli- 
tionist, of the most belligerent type, they endured the Re- 
publican ticket for the most part without any public protest 
because of the attitude of that party on the larger national 
issue Here and there, nevertheless, some ardent advocates 
of the absolute, simon-pure Prohibition could not restrain their 
discontent. 

The members of the ^lethodist Church were very active 
in the agitation for restricting the traffic in alcoholic liquors. 
They were bv far the most numerous religious sect in the 
state IManv of its influential leaders were prominent in poli- 
tics both local or state and national. Foremost in that church 
and in national aflfairs was Senator James Harlan. The inti- 
mate connection between his church affiliations and his political 
prominence was popularly presumed as was suggested by Mr. 
Louis Schade's ironical reference to Senator Harlan as Bishop 
in spe. One of the members of the Methodist Church found 
himself in the early part of the campaign so exasperated with 
the situation that he could not repress his feelings. 

Rev. J. B. Tocelvn was then pastor of the Methodist Church 
in Des T^Ioines. He was popular as a lecturer and travelled 
about the state a great deal delivering lectures upon the evils 
of alcoholic intemperance and organizing lodges or societies 
for the furtherance of Total Abstinence or "Teetotalism" as 
it was frequentlv called. As Mr. Jocelyn contemplated Mr. 
Rusch's candidacv his sense of the fitness of things became 
violently disturbed and he said or was quoted as saying m 
some of his public utterances that he "would rather vote for 
the most ultra-slavery propagandist than to vote for Rusch." 
He evidentlv did some hard hitting for \Qvy soon the Re- 
publican leaders, both local and state, became alarmed at the 
possible damage that might ensue. Grumbling and threats 

— 47 — 



were heard among the faithful. Mr. Elijah Sells, Secretary 
of State, comnninicated with Senator Harlan some of the 
current queries and rejoinders produced by Mr. Jocelyn's at- 
tacks: "Are Methodists to cut the ticket? We'll make it 
cut both ways. If you cut Rusch we cut Methodist." The 
latter meant Senator Harlan, whose re-election depended on the 
success of the Republicans in that campaign. 

One has but little experience in American politics before 
he is forced to realize that the irrepressible "Temperance" 
question invariably engenders intense feelings and much 
malevolence in practical discussion and procedure. In these 
halcyon days of philosophy, philanthropy and "progressive- 
ism" it is potent in producing aspersion and vituperation and 
it was not a whit less potent in the strenuous discussions of 
ante bellum days. 

The nomination of Mr. Rusch by the Republicans in the 
face of his course towards the "Maine Law" and the well- 
known "Temperance" views and propagandism of the fore- 
most leaders of that party presented such a violent contrast 
that Democrats could scarcely contain their scorn and con- 
tempt. They felt that the Republicans were guilty of arrant 
hypocrisy, if not sheer impudence. 

The intensity of their indignation was strikingly shown in 
an editorial in The Dubuque Herald on September 4, 
entitled "Stealing the Livery of Heaven to Serve the Devil 
in." Therein Mr. Dorr bluntly asserted without any qualifica- 
tion that the "entire history" of the Republican party in Iowa 
had "been a cheat and a mockery, a continual series of hollow 
pretenses and frauds upon the public. Governor Grimes was 
elected upon the two-fold issue of Temperance and opposition 
to the repeal of Missouri Compromise. And yet the Bogus 
Republican leaders are great guzzlers of lager beer " 

Mr. Dorr does not confine himself to vasty generalities. 
He proceeds forthwith to personalities and specific mention. 
"If the truth were known" he adds, all of said leaders were 
"subject to the indictment" which should have been found 
against their most prominent and eloquent stump speaker 

— 48 — 



of Aluscatine. In fact it was reported that he was 

presented by the Grand Jur)' of Scott county as a nuisance 
for drunkenness. Grimes is said to be the owner of the 
largest Lager Beer Garden at Burhngton, while it is only 

necessary to cast the eye at the "T family," who 

control Republicanism in Dubuque, to ascertain precisely how 
much sincerity there was in the cry of temperance which 
elected Gov. Grimes. All their love for virtue was but 

assumed to reach the Treasury " This was bringing 

hostilities into close quarters. In dealing with the speaking 
campaign of Mr. Rusch we shall see tliat he was brought 
rudely in contact with such personalities and called upon to 
defend the character of the state's senior Senator at Wash- 
ington against the charge of flagrant hypocrisy in regard to 
his personal conduct and his political program and public 
pretensions. ^^ 

VIII. 

We have already seen how instantly Senator Grimes wrote 
to Mr. Kirkwood urging him to see to it that the German 
voters were aroused and that energetic measures be taken 
to secure the completion of naturalization papers ; and that 
he would write Mr. Rusch to the same effect. Mr. Kirk- 
wood received all sorts of advice as to the proper course of 
procedure. 

]\Iarion county, the northwest corner of which touches 
the southeast corner of Polk county wherein the capital, Des 
Moines is located, was a stronghold of the Democrats. Know 
Nothings and Americans were numerous therein for South- 
erners were numerous among the population. The county 
also contained the town and community of Pella. whose Dutch 
inhabitants had theretofore been largely Democrats. Among 
the prominent Republican leaders and active party workers of 
that party in Marion county was Judge Wm. M. Stone of 

1' See also article in The Dubuque Daily Herald, Aug. 24, wherein 
the course of the Republicans respecting the "Maine Law" between 1855 
and the nomination of Mr. Rusch is reviewed at length and analysed 
with much acuteness and caustic comment. 

— 49 — 



Knoxville. the county seat of said county. His political en- 
erjjy may be inferred from the fact that within four years 
he became a IVigadier General and succeeded Mr. Kirkwood 
as Governor of Iowa. \\'riting Mr. Kirkwood, June 27, from 
Knoxville, Judge Stone advised him as follows: 

I presume that no plan of operations has yet been 
agreed upon for our state campaign 

We intend to make a vigorous and energetic canvass 
in this county, and w^e entertain strong hopes of carrying 
this heretofore stronghold of the enemy. With the loss 
of Henry P. Scholte. who has hitherto held the Pella 
colony to the Democratic line, and numerous difficulties 
pressing upon them, the Marion County Democracy are 
expecting a stormy time in the approaching canvass. 

* * * 

There is one other matter to which I wish to direct 
your attention. And that is as to the kind of a canvass 
our candidate for Lieut. Governor should make. My own 
opinion is, that he should confine himself entirely to the 
German population; for there is the field for him. If he 
can hold them to the line, he will have done more for 
the cause tlian any other man on the ticket. But should 
he take the stump and canvass generally over the state, 
his imperfect English will become the fruitful subject 
of ridicule with our opponents and that very sensitive 
element in our own party with whom the "sweet Ger- 
man accent" at present has no particular charms. I am 
satisfied that, should he mingle with the people south of 
the Des ^loines f river], he will do our whole ticket an 
essential injury. I have already written to him on this 
subject, ?nd I have no doubt that he will take the same 
view of it himself. 

The proceedings of our convention and the ticket are 
giving, so far as I can learn, universal satisfaction. Some 
of the most strenuous Know Nothings we have here 
are cordially endorsing the nomination of ^Mr. Rusch, and 
if we can keep his bad English from grating upon their 
ears, everything will go on well enough. 

The Democracy will give us the hardest fight this 

Fall they have ever made. They feel that it is the strug- 
gle which is to decide their fate, and they will work 
accordingly. 

— 50 — 



Plans for the conduct of the campaign and itineraries of 
speakers were early under advisement and determinations 
soon made. On Tuesday, July 26, at Muscatine, Mr. Kirk- 
wood opened the campaign. The party leaders evidently had 
decided that their best strategy and most effective tactics 
would be realized by attacking first the strongholds of the 
Democrats in the southern part of the state, reserving until 
the latter days of the canvass, the northern cities and towns : 
for Mr. Kirkwood proceeded South to Columbus City, thence 
to Washington, Sigourney, Lancaster, Oskaloosa, Eddyville, 
Ottumwa, Drakeville, Bloomfield, Centerville, Albia, Chariton, 
Corydon, Leon, Osceola. The State Central Committee closed 
their announcement of his itinerary by inviting the Democratic 
candidate for Governor, Gen. A. C. Dodge, to meet Mr. Kirk- 
wood at any of the places named and "discuss with him the 
issues of the present canvass." The challenge was accepted 
with results that made the canvass, as we have seen, intensely 
interesting to all partisans as well as to the public generally. 

In a long letter to Mr. Kirkwood, notifying him of his 
schedule of dates, written at Des Moines July 18, Mr. John 
A. Kasson, Chairman of the Republican State Central Com- 
mittee, described the adverse conditions that Mr. Kirkwood 
would encounter in the southern counties and dwelt particu- 
larly upon the lively Southern prejudices of the people, 
especially in respect of the Slavery question. After telling 
him that "It will be well to run your Maryland birth a little 
down there,"' Mr. Kasson later continues: "In the native 
American districts, I think it would be well to allude to 
Rusch's fine education, interest in agriculture and earnest sup- 
port of a law to secure the purity of the ballot box. I enclose 
a notice which T caused to be published in Warren county on 
these points." 

Senator Grimes, about that time, was apparently thinkmg 
along the same lines as Mr. Kasson was, no doubt noting and 
appreciating the force of the flings of Democratic partizans 
anent the second man on the ticket. On July 14 he wrote 
Mr. Kirkwood a letter upon the general situation, giving 

— 51 — 



caveats and suggestions respecting the modes of conducting the 
canvass. He had concluded his communication and signed it 
when he added the follovi'ing pointed injunction: 

"Remember wherever you go and in all your speeches to 
speak a good word for Rusch. He must not be allowed to 
drop behind his ticket." 

Germans are an exceedingly sensitive folk. Neglect 
arouses their resentment no less than aspersion and deroga- 
tion. Politicians are often artful and now and then faithless 
and sometimes when they attain their ends by skillful man- 
oeuvre forget, or put out of mind those whom they use to 
secure their major objectives. The Democrats were cynically 
charging- that the Republicans were doing precisely this sort 
of thing. Mr. Grimes realized the aptness of the assertions to 
the state of things within the Republican ranks, and perhaps 
learning directly from some of the leaders of the Germans in 
and about Burlington that they were apprehensive of some 
such treatment, deemed it best to anticipate such neglect and 
effectually prevent it. 

Mr. Kirkwood had evidently received disquieting infor- 
mation as to conditions in the northeast part of the state and 
had solicited advice and information from Senator Grimes, 
who wrote from Burlington, July 29, as follows : 

I have just received letters from Allamakee, Clayton 
[counties], etc. It is all bosh about there being a par- 
ticle of trouble in the North, and it is not true that any 
part of our ticket will lose any strength in any of the 
northern counties. So far from it, there are strong hopes 
expressed by our friends that we shall make considerable 
gains in every county. I just saw an intelligent man 
from Marion county. He says the Hollanders are nearly 
all going with Scholte and that we shall carry the county 
by as large a maj.[ority] as the Democrats have usually 
done, viz. 200. As evidence that Democrats surrender 
the county, they are going in for a people's ticket 

Kasson has written me that we shall be apt to lose 
votes in Davis, Appanoose. Monroe, Lucas, Clark, De- 
catur and Wayne [counties] on account of the nomina- 
tion of Rusch for Lieut. Governor and wanting me to 

— 52 — 



go out there before the election. In the first place I 
am not conscious that I have a whit of influence out 
there and in the second place I do not believe that there 
is much tnith in the report. I do not doubt that in the 
counties named Rusch will run five to seven hundred 
votes behind his ticket, but that is nothing. We can ver>' 
well afford to lose them, considering what we gain else- 
where through his name. And is it not strange that 
Americans, or nativists should be so anxious to run — 
under the very man who was most anxious to secure the 
passage of a registry law. Our friends are all speaking 
well of the noble manner in which Judge Edwards has 
acted and is acting in connection wnth this matter and 
with the Lieut. Governorship. I think the consequence 
will be that he will be our candidate for Congress next 
year. 

Meantime the State Central Committee and local leaders 
were conferring as to the program for Mr. Rusch. 

IX. 

Nature and domestic affairs compelled the party leaders 
to suspend their plans for Mr. Rusch's immediate participa- 
tioji in the campaign. The inauguaration of the canvass by 
Mr. Kirkwood and the non-appearance of ^Ir. Rusch and no 
announcement of his speaking schedule aroused curiosity and 
produced more or less adverse comment. Mr. Add Sanders 
felt it desirable to explain his non-appearance on the stump 
in The Gazette, August 8. The information given the public 
reminds us again that men and measures, first and last, are 
always held close to the earth and that extensive plans for 
the arousement of the Germans were in contemplation : 

Senator Rusch, the Republican candidate for Lieut. 
Governor, has been too busy in his harvest fields the last 
two weeks to devote himself so strictly to the political 
canvass as otherwise he might have done. Besides, he 
has just obtained another little Rusch light to illuminate 
his domestic pathway, and his parental attention is re- 
quired at home a few days longer. He evidently under- 
stands husbandry in all its branches. We are authorized 
by him to say that in about two weeks he will publish 
his list of appointments, and at the time take the stump, 

— 53 — 



and make one or more speeches every business day of 
each week till election. We are gratified to announce 
that Mr. Rusch has been in correspondence with several 
German speakers abroad, and that Judge Stallo, of Cin- 
cinnati, and Col. Schurz of Wisconsin, have signified 
their intention of visiting Iowa this Summer and ad- 
dressing their German-born fellow citizens in different 
parts of the state. — These gentlemen are too well known 
by name to need any introduction. They will meet with 
a hearty welcome. 
Mr. Rusch's itinerary was published in The Gate City, 
August 23. He was to speak at Keokuk August 30 and thence 
proceed up the Des Moines river, speaking at Franklin Cen- 
ter, Ft. Madison, Fairfield, Ottumwa, Oskaloosa, Pella, Mon- 
roe, Newton and Homestead. In a brief preliminary state- 
ment accompanying the announcement, the State Central 
Committee or the editor of the Gate City informed the public 
that: "He will speak chiefly in the German language." Evi- 
dently the suggestions of Judge Stone and others to Messrs. 
Kirkwood and Kasson were either anticipated or materialized. 
With the incidents of Mr. Rusch's tour, and the success 
of his speeches we shall have occasion later to deal at some 
length. Before doing so we shall consider some of the plans 
and procedure of the Democratic party that indicated on onp 
side constant consideration of the Germans and their pride 
and racial interests and on the other side deliberate purpose 
to excite the nativistic prejudices of the pro-slavery American 
or Anti-Abolition elements, together with some of the local 
programs of the Republicans exhibiting the same purpose. 

X. 

One may detect the primary facts in the campaign in 
Iowa in 18.59 in the minutia that fills the columns of the 
newspapers as much as in the major matters that bulk big 
in editorials. 

The Democrats — and in particular their State Central Com- 
mittee presumably — encouraged Mr. Will Porter, editor of 
the Iowa State Journal, at Des Moines, to issue a special 
Campaign Journal. Its columns between July 21, when first 

— 54 — 



issued, and Scpteml;er 22, when its issues seem to have ceased, 
afford niucli interesting^ evidence of the fact that the foreign- 
born were a constant factor in the determination of the cam- 
paigTi. In what follows I shall make an exhibit of sundry 
bits, items, squibs, titles taken from Mr. Porter's columns. 

On the first page of the first issue under the head of 
"Queries"' we find one addressed to Mr. Kirkwood : "Is it 
true tlirt he was a member of a Know Nothing Order?" 
Lower down the same column is a succinct summary of a 
then recent letter to the N. Y. Tribune in which it is alleged 
that the Republicans of Massachusetts were obliged to pass 
the Two Year Amendment because of a bargain struck two 
years before with tlie Know Nothings of the Old Bay State. 

On the second page is a reprint of a leader from the Cin- 
cinnati Itncuircr dealing with "Negro Equality, etc..'' which 
is a severe arraignment of an article in the Boston Atlas and 
Bee, edited by Col. Wm. Schouler. in which the latter main- 
tained that Negrcs were as competent for citizenship as were 
"raw Irishmen and ignorant Dutchmen" and the liberal policy 
of Maine and Massachusetts in respect of Negroes is frankly 
commended and the illiberal policy of Wisconsin is con- 
demned. On the third page is another long article re])rinted 
from the Cincinnati Enquirer, entitled: "South Carolina 
Law in Relation to the Foreign Born, etc.," in which the act 
of Massachusetts is reprinted and the allegation that South 
Carolina had a similar statute is expressly denied, and in 
proof thereof a letter from the Deputy Secretary of State 
of said state to such effect is reprinted. 

On the fourth page of the same issue [July 21] are to 
be found "Commentaries on the Republican Platform," which 
consists of a series of biting criticisms of the fourth plank 
of the Rcpu1ilic?n ])latfonTi that asserted that the Republicans 
stood forth as the champions of "liberty of conscience, equality 
of rights and the free exercise of the right of suffrage." 
The plank was pronounced a cheat and sham and the leaders 
of the party charged with hypocrisy. Mr. Rusch's nomina- 
tion was assailed. The writer asserted that in contrast with 

— 55 — 



Indoles Edwards and Hamilton, he was "no more fit for the 
office for which he is presented than a priest is fit for a 
politician." 

In the second issue of the Campaign Journal [July 28] 
Mr. Porter has an article entitled: "Republican Corruption," 
in which he ascribes to an Alliance of Abolitionism and 
Knovv-Nothingism all of the major evils in and out of Con- 
gress that had perplexed the public since 1854. Another 
article reprinted from tlie Marion [la.] Herald asks if Know 
Nothings are going to "vote for Rusch." The third page of 
that issue is signalized by a cartoon that purports to portray 
our "German Fellow Citizen'' offering food to a disconsolate 
Know Nothing and the sentiments subscribed enlarge upon his 
fondness for pretzels and beer ; and another cartoon exhibits 
the perplexities of the party managers because of the nom- 
ination of Mr. Rusch. On the fourth page of that same issue 
are given liberal extracts from Attorney General Black's opin- 
ion [July 4] in the case of Christian Ernst, a Hanoverian, 
naturalized in this country and then under arrest in his native 
state for delinquent military duty — an utterance that super- 
ficially appears to repudiate, or materially to modify the Cass- 
LeClerc doctrine. In another column is an article reprinted 
from the Express and Herald of Dubuque that deals harshly 
with Mr. Rusch, declaring him grossly unfit for the place to 
which he had been nominated and predicting that he would 
resign or default because of sheer incapacity. 

The amount of space given to items and articles directly 
or indirectly designed to arouse the discontent and ire of the 
Germans with the Republican protestations of good will for 
the f(^reign-born and their program of legislation, or com- 
mending the course of Democrats in respect of the same, 
varied, of course, from issue to issue; but there was usually 
something Mr. Porter intended should alienate Germans or 
Irish from the Republican ranks. 

The issue of September 8 is suggestive. The first page 
contains an able letter from a German discussing the dif- 
ferences in the policies of Massachusetts and South Carolina 

— 56 — 



in dealing' with naturalized citizens in their electoral fran- 
chise which concludes with a defense of the course of the 
Democratic party. On the next page are three editorial arti- 
cles — [1] ''Come Along Nicholas,"' twitting Mr. Rusch for 
avoiding Des Moines in his speaking tour and his managers' 
policy of having him speak "chiefly in German"; [2] "Rene- 
gade Scholte," assailing Mr. H. P. Scholte, the founder of 
the Holland community of Pella, for deserting the Demo- 
cratic party and espousing the Republican program; and [3] 
"Protection to Naturalized Citizens," an article repelling the 
Republican charges that the National Administration was per- 
mitting several naturalized citizens to languish in Prussian 
prisons on sundry unjust accounts, chiefly alleged delinquent 
military service. On the third page are three other articles: 
two dealing harshly with Mr. Rusch's efforts on his speak- 
ing tour, and a third giving an extended extract from a speech 
of Gen. A. C. Dodge, the Democratic candidate for Governor, 
while a member of the Senate at Washington dealing with 
the character and conduct of our foreign-born citizens. 
Therein (jcn. Dodge repelled with eloquence and scorn the 
unjust assertions of Senator Thompson of Kentucky in the 
Senate in 1854 reflecting contemptuously upon the Germans 
— a speech to which we shall later have occasion to refer. 

XI. 

The Democrats, as did their rivals, the Republicans, played 
on both sides of the line. In regions where the "American" 
voters were preponderant and the foreign vote negligible, they 
encited the nativists and sought to enlist their support. As 
previously mentioned, the Democratic leaders at the national 
capital were intensely interested in the outcome of the cam- 
paign in Iowa and kept in close commimication with their 

local managers. 

■» 

When Mr. Kirkvvood met General Dodge in joint debate 
at Albia, August 3, one of the local workers handed him a 
circular letter which purported to have been written and 
printed at Washington, D. C, under date of July 28, by one, 

— 57 — 



G. Donnellan, who some time previous had been a civil encfi- 
neer in Keckuk, and then v^as a clerk in one of the depart- 
ments at Washington, with a roving commission as messenger 
for the President. His letter was marked "Confidential"; 
and began with : 

"In view of the Presidential campaign, the election of a 
United States Senator by the next General Assembly, etc.," 
the waiter, desirous of aiding in the recovery of the state 
from the rule of the Republicans, had prepared sundry tabular 
exhibits showing:- — 1. The Democratic majorities and mi- 
norities in each county : 2 ; 3. "The loss and gain 

of 1856 and 18.^8 in each county, assuming the American 
poll of 1856 to be Democratic in State elections; 4, the aver- 
age required gain for each county." The writer then in- 
forms his correspondent that he will have printed 5,000 copies, 
"being about one copy to every ten Democratic and iVmerican 
voters." He then asks the name of one or two "sound and 
discrete workers in the cause in each township," to w^hom 
copies may be sent. He suggests and urges the formation 
of local clubs to promote the organization of the voters. He 
then states that he is conferring with the Chairman of the 
Democratic State Central Committee respecting the creation 
of a fund, and asks the local committee "to raise $5.00 to 
$10.00 each." ^" 

The expo'^ure of the "Confidential" circular afforded the 
Republicans great glee. Its direct appeal to the "Americans" ; 
its assumption of the mutuality of interests of Democrats and 
"Americans" in the campaign ; and its project for the demon- 
stration of sucli common interest in the joint organization 
of Democrats and Americans — such a condition of affairs 
and such procedure made the declarations of the ]])emo- 
cratic platform respecting the foreign-born take on the ])e- 
culiar hues that suggest an impudent pretense. The circular, 
moreover, seemed also to confirm the stout belief of the Re- 
publican leaders that the Democrats were creating a large 
fund wherewith to carry the election. Senator Grimes 

" The Daily Gate City, August 12, 1859. 
— 58 — 



throughout the campaign contended that $30,000 was con- 
tributed, or at least attempted to be assessed and collected. 

The writer of the circular was so childlike and bland as to 
make one entertain the suspicion that the letter was a shrewd 
campaign hoax of the Republicans. If such was not the case, 
the writer was evidently acting on his own initiative — at least 
it hardly seems probable that the members of the Democratic 
State Central Committee would have presumed that such a 
document could be distributed broadcast throughout the state 
and be kept from the lynx-eyed managers of the Republican 
party. 

In September other circulars were issued from Washing- 
ton, D. C. They were dated at the 'Towa Democratic Club 
Rooms." One of them — an eight page folder — urged the 
Democrats of Iowa to arouse themselves to vigorous and 
determined action : "Recollect,"' the writer proclaims, "too, 
that a United States Senator is to be elected in the place of 
the man [Harlan] who, in his seat in the Senate proclaimed 
that the negro was the equal of the white man, because, for- 
sooth, they had arms, heads, noses, ears, legs, etc., just as if 
the murderer and the thief were the equal of the honest man, 
because they had arms, heads, noses, ears, legs * * *"^^ Some 
or all of these circulars were mailed to voters, especially in 
the southern tiers of counties wnth the Congressional frank of 
Jesse Bright, one of the Senators from Indiana.^* 

Such sentiments and such foreign interference in the cam- 
paign in Iowa enhanced the heat and bitterness of the contest 
and accentuated the clash of native and foreign interests, inter- 
laced as they were with controversies over the status of the 
slave and the foreign born in the polity of the northern free 
states and in the nation at large. 

XII. 

The special consideration accorded Germans in the cam- 
paign is signified unmistakably in the emphasis with which the 
defection of Germans or Hollanders from the ranks of the 

IT Ibid, September 21, 1859. 
18 Ibid. September 26. 1859. 

— 59 — 



Democratic party is hailed by the Republicans and the virulent 
abuse of the same by the Democrats. Per contra the Repub- 
licans denounce in terms almost scurrilous any German who 
stands forth as a special pleader for the return of the Demo- 
cratic party to power. 

The treatment of Mr. Henry P. Scholte, the founder of 
the Holland community of Pella, is typical. After his natural- 
ization, Mr. Scholte joined the Whig party. On its demise 
after 1852 he affiliated with the Democratic party, having no 
sympathy with the "mad-dog abolitionism" with which he and 
most whigs believed the Free Soil Democrats and the Repub- 
licans to be animated. In 1856 Mr. Scholte did effective speak- 
ing for Mr. Buchanan among the Hollanders in Michigan, 
traveling in the same car with such notables as Gen. Lewis 
Cass, later Secretary of State. The aggressions of the South- 
ern leaders in Kansas, however, caused him to halt, and finally 
to secede from the Democratic party. His first public dem- 
onstration of his change of attitude was his attendance at the 
Republican state convention at Des Moines, June 22. The 
Republicans, of course, rejoiced lustily. The defection of Mr. 
Scholte was telegraphed to the Chicago Press and Tribune; 
and the fact was heralded in the columns of Greeley's Tribune. 
The Republicans, as was the wont of lowans, elevated Mr. 
Scholte in public rank. The Gate City referred to him as 
"Colonel" Scholte, although he had been educated for the 
ministry and had engaged in nothing more belligerent in char- 
acter than banking, editorial writing, land selling and the legal 
profession. 

The Democrats were no less pronounced in their resent- 
ment of Mr. Scholte's desertion. They started a canard at 
Des Moines, alleging tliat Mr. Scholte's attendance at the Con- 
vention at Des Moines was originally as a delegate to the 
Democratic convention on June 23 ; but being unable to guide 
himself aright in the babel of contending politicians assembled 
in the state capital for the two conventions, he became con- 
fused. Some Macliiavellian Republicans perceiving his befud- 
dlement deliberately set to work to enhance his bewilderment 
and to inveigle him within the Republican conclave and so 

— 60 — 



manipulated his course as to succeed. Once within the con- 
vention hall we are told cajolery and flattery induced him to 
sit with the deleg^ates from Marion county. Democrats seeing 
him among their opponents began to denounce him. Mr. 
Scholte found himself involved with adverse appearances. Re- 
senting the flings of his townsmen, he "went over"' in a state 
of petulance with bag and baggage to the Republicans. The 
Democratic editors indulged in much contemptuous and reck- 
less ridicule of his course suggested in the canard just outlined. 

Mr. Scholte that summer revived the publication of the 
Pella Gazette, which he had published and edited from 1855 
to 1858, and in his introductory editorial [July 22] he set forth 
the general considerations that constrained him to throw his 
influence upon the side of the Republicans. He states that the 
Democrats of Marion county, knowing that he had given out 
information that he had altered his views about the general 
pohcies of the Democratic party had nevertheless deliberately 
chosen him as a delegate to the state convention and he refused 
to be bound by their ill-advised and arbitrary action. 

Mr. Scholte's secession was deemed so serious that it 
aroused into action a bard in Southern Iowa who thought it fit 
to place the Dominie of Pella in the pillory of fame by encasing 
him in a poem contributed to The Keosauqua Neics — the title, 
text and three stanzas of which follow^^: 

The Traitor. 
"I have to thank the Democratic party for nothing. 
I owe that party no debts. — Once more I feel at home in 
my political connections." Extract from letter of H. P. 
Scholte. 

" 'Twas rashly said — you owe a debt 

Your treason ill requites ; 
You owe that party for your vote, 
And all the sacred rights. 

You and your countrymen enjoy, 

Wher'er its banner floats ; 
For it alone did stay the hand 
That clutched at alien throats. 
18 Reprinted from Campaign State Journal, Sept. 8, 1859. Italics 
ir; Journal. 

— 61 — 



You say — "You feel at home" — remain, 

We kindly bid you stay ; 
But listen to the chains that clank 

'Long Massachusetts zvay! 

Such earnestness and emphasis, such condemnation and 
dismal reflections signified but one thing. The foreign-born 
and their votes constituted a fact of the first order of import- 
ance. Otherwise the ill-nature and intense chagrin of the 
Democrats anent the secession of the ''King of the Dutch" 
were absurd. 

In the forepart of the campaign a semi-weekly German 
paper, Iowa Volksblatt, was started at Keokuk. Mr. Carl 
Serth, editor. The Gate City promptly commended it highly 
to the public and especially to Germans, being moved no doubt 
so to do because the Volksblatt "advocates Republican principles 
and supports the Republican ticket." For precisely the same 
reasons the Democratic editors viewed its advent critically. 
They indicated their ill-will in serious allegations against the 
character and conduct of Mr. Serth. 

The editor of the Journal of Keokuk heard, or was certain 
that he had heard, that Mr. Serth was improperly influenced to 
come out in favor of the Republican ticket; he gave credence 
to a story that Mr. Serth had agreed in a certain "beer cave" 
to throw his influence among the Germans for a certain can- 
didate who had agreed to give him $800 for the editorials of the 
Volksblatt. Mr. Serth took notice of the charge. He said that 
the informant of the Journal was more or less in error. He, 
Mr. Serth, had not been, and might have been presumed not 
have been, so low minded as to ask $800. He intimates that 
it would have been nearer the truth to have said that he was 
offered '$8,000 as a proper honorarium. Moreover, he expected 
$80,000 if the campaign concluded as he hoped and antic- 
ipated.^" 

Mr. Serth was evidently a man of great and irrepressible 
energy who created more or less local antagonism. The Gate 
City on election day [Oct. 11] chronicles that the ill-will pro- 
voked by Mr. Serth's vigorous expressions, either in the way 

20 The Daily Gate City. July 27, 1859. 
— 62 — 



of partisan comment or in personal criticisms of local notables, 
finally concentrated and resulted on the preceding day in an 
assault and battery upon Mr. Serth. A lusty "six foot Demo- 
crat." we are informed, "caught him by the throat and choked 
him." and another indignant compatriot of the same party 
faith, a "strapping fellow struck him over the head with a 
cane." Whether the affair was a mere brawl without virtue, 
or was the issue of Mr. Berth's vitriolic criticisms, or was an 
outrageous attack upon his person and peace because he had 
exercised the elemental rights of a citizen, I cannot say ; for I 
have not had access to the columns of the Journal and I have 
been unable to discover any of the file of the Volksblatt. Mr. 
Howell's comment on the assault concludes with the observa- 
tion : "The Democracy are evidently in a bad humor ; but 
we hope the result of the election will teach them that the 
Germans have other rights and privileges in this country than 
simply to serve as voting stock for the Democracy." 

The Republicans on their side were not a whit less ungraci- 
ous and unjust in the treatment they accorded any German 
who stood forth conspicuously as the champion of the Demo- 
cratic party. Their conduct with respect to Mr. Louis Schade 
became malevolent and scandalous at times. Mr. Schade, as 
we have had reason to see, was a highly educated man. The 
Hazvkeye on December 20, 1858 had commended him to the 
cultured people of Burlington as a lecturer and traveller. But 
when he became active in 1859 in opposition to the Republican 
party, the Hawkeye, the Gate City and the Gazette of Daven- 
port upset the vials of their wrath upon Mr. Schade's head. 
The Hawkeye became so bitter and reckless in its abuse that 
Mr. Schade instituted a civil action for libel and damages in 
the District court at Burlington. Throughout the state during 
the entire campaign the Republican press generally referred 
to Mr. Schade in the most contemptuous terms. Their asser- 
tions respecting him were probably no more founded than 
were those regarding Mr. Scholte, save perhaps that Mr. 
Schade was himself somewhat more given to slashing adjectives 
than was the case with Mr. Scholte, and thus he may have 
provoked more recrimination. We shall have occasion later to 

— G3 — 



note the comments made upon Mr. Schade's part in the speak- 
ing campaign in connection with the work of Mr. Rusch. 
The invectives that were so numerously hurled at those two 
Germans clearly indicate that each party realized that both 
men maligned were potent and dangerous antagonists and 
consequently it was necessary to discount and to denounce 
them. 

The aspersions upon Mr. Schade were taken so seriously at 
Burlington that a mass meeting was called and met at the 
county court house. We are told by one correspondent that it 
was "by far the largest meeting" held in that city during the 
campaign up to that time ; between "five and six hundred 
Germans were present." The German Brass band discoursed 
stirring music. Both Republicans and Democrats participated 
in the proceedings. Strong speeches were made denouncing 
the conduct of the editor of the Hawkeye. Resolutions of 
like character and purport were "unanimously" adopted. The 
chairman of the committee on resolutions was, we are told, a 
"prominent German Republican" who resented the unjust 
and invidious treatment of his fellow countryman by the lead- 
ing Republican organ of the state. The mass meeting [or the 
institution of the libel suit] was apparently efficacious, for we 
are informed that "since that time the Hawkeye has left Col. 
Schade alone." I am unable to estimate the significance of 
the meeting and especially of its proceedings, as my source 
of information is an ex parte account printed in The Dubuque 
Daily Herald [Aug. 25]. 

XTII. 

In many parts of the state, local contests turned upon the 
clash of native and foreign born. Local leaders of both parties 
perceiving that the Germans were particularly sensitive and 
belligerent by reason of the Two Year Amendment nominated 
Germans and other non-natives for local offices and for the 
state Legislature. The developments in three counties may 
illustrate some interesting phases of the campaign. 

In Dubuque county the foreign born constituted nearly 
one-half of the population. Of the four candidates nominated 

— 64 — 



by the Democratic county convention, for the Legislature two 
were Germans, ]\Ir. C. DenHngrer and Mr. Frederick A. Gniffke, 
editor of Der National Demokrat. Other names on the ticket, 
Dennis A. Mahony, for Treasurer, C. F. Hetlich for Coroner, 
and Hardin NowHn for Surveyor, demonstrate that sons of 
Germania and Hibernia were given the prizes. 

The Democrats were torn with bitter dissensions engendered 
by the colHsion of the Buchanan and Douglas factions. The 
Douglas men controlled the county convention and were the 
"regulars." The Buchanan men bolted and organized another 
convention and nominated an independent Democratic ticket. 
Among those nominated for the House of Representatives was 
Mr. Francis Mangold, a native of France. 

Lee county, like Dubuque county, was a stronghold of the 
Democratic party. Its majority had for long been so large and 
reliable that the leaders assumed the certainty of the allegiance 
of the Germans. Owing to personal rivalries and resulting 
combinations few or no foreign born were nominated for local 
offices at the county convention at Charleston, Saturday, Sep- 
tember 3. Natives had matters entirely in their control and 
for the most part only natives were nominated for places of 
honor and profit. Among those defeated we find such names 
as Rentgen, Bauder and O'Connor, candidates for Sherifif. Mr. 
Bauder had been a member of the State Legislature for 
several years. 

The convention at Charleston, Lee County, Iowa, was a 
prototype of the one then already called to meet in Charleston, 
South Carolina, in 1860. Its deliberations engendered violent 
discontent. It did not produce a bolt or a "Rump;" but ad- 
journment had no sooner taken place than the Democratic 
leaders realized that they had trouble in plenty ahead. The 
Germans were "up in arms" and the Republican press added 
oil and pitch to the fiery debates. Thus Mr. Howell commented 
upon the situation (Sept. 6) in The Gate City: 

How THE Democracy Protects Foreigners. 

It is a significant fact that the Democratic convention 
did, on last Saturday, reject, throw over board, or lay 
on the shelf every candidate who was of foreign birth. 
— 65 — 



The German candidate for the Legislature, who is an 
honest, upright, and influential man, and who has faith- 
fully served the part}' for twelve long years, was laid on 
the shelf by general agreement, even before the balloting 
commenced 

We do not know what our citizens of foreign birth, 
generally, may think of this treatment. But, certainly, 
they must have the virtues of patience and forbearance to 
an extraordinary degree, if this cavalier treatment does 
not at least arrest their attention, and suggest some true 
and wholesome reflections. Are they aware how many 
voters of foreign birth there are in this county ? Are they 
aware that these voters hold the balance of power as 
between the two parties in this county ? Have not the 
Ciermans and Irish kept the Democracy of Lee in power 
for more than six years — nay, for a dozen years? Would 
not the Democracy of Lee without their aid, have long 
since been floored and blown sky high ? This is all true 
as truth itself. 

If twelve years faithful service does not entitle foreign- 
ers to any of the honors of the party, how much longer 
must they serve in the ranks, and work and sweat, and 

be content with the office of "high private"? 

Will the Democratic leaders ever discover that foreigners 
are equal to themselves and just as much entitled as them- 
selves to be Sheriff or Representative, or Senator? 

Questions like these, we should think, the Irish and 
Germans would begin to put at the leaders. Have they 
not fully repaid the Democracy for the "protection" which 
they fancy they have received from the Democracy? .... 

In the way of a cracker on the end of his whip lash Mr. 
Howell added the following editorial note : 

Gkumans "\*otint. Stock." 

A leading Democrat at the State Convention on hearing 

of Rusch's nomination for Lieutenant Governor, by the 

Republicans, said the Germans would do very well for 

"voting stock." but he hoped the State would never be 

disgraced by having a German to preside in the Senate. 

The Demoratic leaders realized soon that discontent and 

dissention among the Germans were rapidly ripening into revolt 

and secession and the entire ticket was endangered. Sundry 

fearing, or foreseeing, defeat declined to accept the nominations 

— 66 — 



tendered them. Matters were so serious that another conven- 
tion was called to convene at Charleston on September 17 to 
mend matters. "Germany is in rebellion" and "Germany is 
a power" were heard on all sides and whether Know Nothings 
liked it, or no, "Germany had to be appeased ;" and bitter 
though the necessity was the Democrats in the current parlance 
of their dearest foes "went down on their knees" and besought 
the alliance of the militant Germans. They nominated Mr. 
Valentine Buechel of Ft. Madison for the State Senate con- 
cerning whom Mr. Howell promptly said (Sept. 19) : "Mr. 
Buechel is a man of good education, and is highly esteemed 
by those who know bim. The Locofocos could not have 
selected a better man from among the Germans." 

The Democratic leaders at the same time made earnest and 
repeated efforts to induce Mr. B. Hugel of Keokuk to accept 
the nomination for the Lower House of the State Legislature. 
Mr. Hugel was either highly incensed at the previous treatment 
accorded his countrymen in the convention of September 3, or 
his views on public questions had so seriously changed that he 
was obdurate and insensible to their appeals, flatly declining 
to accept the nomination tendered himi. More than this — 
Mr. Hugel felt the exigency to be such that he decided to run 
independently for the Legislature. His design, judging simply 
from the superficial facts, was either to punish the Democrats 
for their course by attracting sufficient votes from the German 
supporters of the regular Democratic party to insure defeat 
of the regular ticket ; or it was announced in the hope that 
the Republicans might have their nominee withdraw and the 
entire opposition unite upon him. Whatever his real purpose 
the announcement of his candidacy was hailed by the Republi- 
cans with entire approval and his speeches in the canvass were 
promoted and exploited with enthusiasm by the Republican 
press. Of him Mr. Olshausen told the readers of Der Demo- 
krat (Oct. 14) : "Mr. Hugel einer der altesten deutschen 

Ansiedler in Lee County und wir konnen mit dem 

"Iowa Volksblatt" unserer Partei zu dieser Acquisition nur 
gratuliren." 

In Keokuk county, especially in and about Sigoumey, the 

— 67 — 



county seat, some seventy-five miles north and west of the city 
of Keokuk, native and foreign prejudices colored and controlled 
debate and decisions. The Republicans decided that the only 
way to break the strength of the Democrats in that county was 
to placate the Germans and they nominated for the House of 
Representatives Mr. Charles Mertz of Sigourney. The canvass 
became especiallv virulent. The Democrats immediately rent 
the air with charges and epithets ad terror em. Mr. Mertz was 
proclaimed an "Atheist" and a "Polygamist ;" and all decent 
and respectable people were asked to oppose his election because 
he "was opposed to all Sabbath laws" and "all liquor laws." 
Republicans and Democrats belabored each other with all of 
the stock arguments, herein already mentioned or to be noted. 
Mr. John Rogers, the editor of the Republican paper at Sigour- 
ney, Life in the West, in the issues of September 29 and Oc- 
tober 6 prints two instructive articles which I reproduce as 
they exhibit sundry phases of the twists of local logic and the 
turns of local leaders in the county contests. The first one has 
additional importance because it is a translation of an editorial 
in Die Freie Presse of Burlington, the files of which appear 
to be lost. Its editor, Mr. Herman C. Orth was an enthusiastic 
advocate of the election of Kirkwood and Rusch. 

Where are the Know Nothings? 

It is the acts and not the words by which we ought to 
judge the sentiments. Reading the Democratic papers, 
you would verily believe that their whole aim is the happi- 
ness of the Germans and only the Germans. When you 
hear the Democratic orators and all the sweet honey-like 
flattery with which they shampoo the Germans, you will be 
frightened into the belief that they might eat up the Dutch 
from mere love. Their w-ords are undoubtedly ver}' fine, 
but what do they do to prove their friendship to the for- 
eigner? What are the equal rights they concede to the 
Germans? The Germans form more than a third part of 
the population of Iowa, and therefore have just claims to 
be represented in the Administration of the State Govern- 
ment. Did the Democrats ever yield this right? Never. 
The post of an Alderman or Constable was the utmost 
they could spare the Germans. As far as we can recollect, 
as long as Iowa was under Democratic rule only once a 
— 68 — 



German of Van Buren County has been in the Legislature ; 
another, Postmaster Warren, of West Point, indeed the 
nomination was made, but was beaten, when all the rest 
of the whole-hog- ticket was elected. Under Republican 
rule on the contrary the Germans have always been repre- 
sented, by Rothmann. of Guttenberg, Roeder of Walnut 
Creek, and Rusch of Davenport. On the Republican ticket 
this year stands the name of a German Senator, Rusch, 
as a candidate for the second highest office of honor in 
the State. For the Legislature, the Republicans of Clay- 
ton have nominated Nicolaus ; they of Keokuk County our 
old fellow citizen, Mertz ; they of Des Moines. C. W. 
Bodemann. These are not words — they are acts of the 
Republican party. 
The writer in Die Freie Presse then proceeds ironically to 
enlarge upon the conduct of the Democratic party of Lee county 
in respect of their treatment of ]\Ir. Hugel, who we are told, 
was "one of the wealthiest freeholders in the county, a man 
of indubitable abilities" and concludes with : "This is what 
they call Democratic kindness to the "foreigners." Is there 
anybody who, after such facts, can doubt where the Know 
Nothings are?" 

In the issue of October 6, Life in the West demonstrated 
that the campaign was nearing its culmination and that the 
controversies were producing white heat. The following edi- 
torial article was printed with "scare heads" to arouse the 
yeomanry of the county to the gravity of the menace threaten- 
ing their peace and common welfare : 

German Citizens Read. 

A BRIRE offered. 

Finch and Elvvood in their political travels are circulat- 
ing tracts among the Germans for the purpose of securing 
the votes of that class of our people. The main feature 
of these tracts is a bid for votes, the consideration to be 
given is whisky, nothing but whisky. Mr. Fracken gives 
us the following translation of a few extracts : 

But one of the worst laws for which we have to 
thank the Republicans is the Maine liquor law. How- 
ever much the Governments of Europe oppressed us 
by their despotic rule, they never went so far as to 
forbid us the use of certain eatables and drinks. The 
— 69 — 



Bavarian has his Bavarian beer ; the Prussian has his 
weiss beer ; he can drink as much of it as he will 
without anybody to molest him, much less the p^overn- 
ment. These are citizens' rights which even despots 
never dare to touch. But different it is in this free 
country since the bigoted, puritanic temperance men 
who form the controlling element in some of the 
States, since the Republican party came into power. 

Such are the American republicans, with 

whom those styling themselves educated Germans 
associate and treat a farmer or common man with 
contempt if he does not vote the Republican ticket. 

Our German citizens may depend upon it 

that if the Democrats come into power this fall it will 
be their first work to repeal the present liquor law. 
The candidates of the Republican party, with the 
exception of Rusch, are to a man in favor of tem- 
perance. Kirkwood is making temperance speeches, 
and the three candidates for supreme judges are if 
possible worse. But how different it is with the 
candidates of the Democratic party. They are all 
men of character, and as such are known to the whole 

country. Gen. Dodge is no temperance 

man, nor Know Nothing, but a Democrat of the 
first water. Neither Judge Mason, nor Wilson, nor 
Cole is a temperance man 

Germans remember Massachusetts and Connecticut. 
Remember that they place you below the Negroes. 
Take care that Republican financiers don't empty 
your pockets, Remember the ]\Iaine liquor law. 
Vote for Dodge and not for Kirkwood. 

This production must be particularly refreshing to an 
intelligent German. It tells him very distinctly that he 
only lives to drink whisky, and that to obtain it to his 
heart's content, he has only to vote the Democratic ticket. 
It tells the German so plainly that he cannot misunderstand, 
that all his perceptions of rights and duties as a citizen 
are bound by the hoops of a whisky barrel. It is taken 
as an indisputable fact that the Germans desire to see the 
Government in the hands of drunken loafers who are 
traveling over the State circulating such precious docu- 
ments. Germans, if that circular is a fair index to your 
sentiments — if you have no higher perceptions of your 
duties as citizens — if you have not self respect enough 

— 70 — 



to spurn the imputation it casts in your teeth, then we 
say vote the Democratic ticket. 

PoHtics ordinarily develops all sorts of absurd suspicious- 
ness and extravagant surmises and assertion among partizans. 
A laughable, but thoroughly typical instance occurred in Keo- 
kuk county. The Democrats in the latter days of August or 
in the fore part of September industriously circulated a "story" 
to the effect that the Republican candidate for the House of 
Representatives, Mr. Mertz, sometime before in the execution 
of his duties as Assessor, had listed and valued as personal 
property, or as a chattel, one of his fellow Germans, who was 
acting as a servant or employee of another German, to whom 
for some reason the one so listed was heavily indebted to the 
amount of $1000 and at that amount he, the debtor was listed 
and valued. Mr. Mertz was at once charged in horrific 
rhetoric with the unspeakable offense of branding a fellow 
German as "Dutch ni<^ger," and rabid critics exclaimed and 
proclaimed terrifically. The facts while easily explicable 
created a somewhat awkward situation. Mr. Mertz in listing 
"monies and credits" had either acted hastily or heedlessly 
and in some confusion, or in sheer ignorance of legal distinc- 
tions classed the obligor with the obligation, the chose in action 
of the creditor with the debt of the debtor. It afforded the 
Democrats the thrills of nightmare for a short time and added 
variety to the dull round of the local campaign. 

XIV. 

From the days of Thomas Jefferson who urged and etfected 
the repeal of the odious Alien and Sedition laws to the intro- 
duction of the Nebraska bill in 1854 the foreign-born, notably 
the Germans and the Irish, constituted a major corps in the 
Democratic party ; and their loyalty to that party's standards 
was merited because the champions of that party, with few 
exceptions protected them against hostile legislation promoted 
b)^ Whigs and nativistic zealots. In 18.S4. however, Germans 
had their faith in the righteousness of the Democratic party 
shocked by the Douglas bill that seemed to sweep away the 
northern boundary line of Slavery ; and the shock occurred at 

— 71 — 



a time when they were beginning to suspect the good will of 
Southern Democratic leaders and to discern a clearcut cleavage 
of interest between the institution of Slavery and the welfare 
of the Germans as freemen and landseekers and homebuilders. 
The secession of the Germans from the Democratic party by 
the thousands, if not by the tens of thousands, became one of 
the noteworthy results of the Repeal of the Missouri Com- 
promise. Their secession and affiliation witli the Opposition, 
especially with the Anti-slavery factions and forces produced 
naturally pronounced resentment and malevolence common in 
all family feuds or sectarian schisms. Former confreres turned 
upon each other with bitterness and crimination and recrimina- 
tion became rampant. 

From the beginning to the close of the canvass in Iowa in 
1859 Democratic editors and leaders attacked the candidacy of 
Nicholas J. Rusch for Lieutenant Governor with a vigor, not 
to say virulence, that was astonishing save for the fact that it 
demonstrated that the Democratic managers perceived one of 
the major strategic facts in the campaign — the importance of 
the German vote. As is usual in the stress of partizan struggles 
common sense and sensibility, no less than prudence and wise 
policy were lost sight of, or nullified, by petty malevolence, 
that in some instances became not merely crass, but gross and 
contemptible. Such attacks were indulged in by leaders of 
high rank and large estate as well as by the untutored folk 
whose logic usually consists of sound and fury and hurtling 
epithet. 

In a speech at Des Moines following the Democratic state 
convention a prominent Democratic leader from Chariton, who 
had been presented by his friends as a candidate for the Demo- 
cratic nomination for Lieutenant Governor, was reported as 
saying: "The Republicans have bought the Dutch by nominat- 
ing Rusch but they do not intend to disgrace the Senate and 
the State by having him preside. They would pay him six 
dollars a day if he would stay away and elect one of their 
own number to preside." Another and more distinguished 
Democrat, Mr. Ben M. Samuels, on the same occasion, allowed 
himself to refer openly, if reports may be credited, to Mr. 

— 72 — 



Rusch as "a man of no account — a wooden man," wnose 
nomination was a mere bid for votes. 

Democratic editors dwelt with much fervor upon Mr. 
Rusch's deficiencies in oratorical abiHty and his inability to 
express himself in effective Englisl]. The Democratic Clarion 
of Bloomfield [June 29] declared him incompetent to preside 
over the Senate and the Board of Education of which he would 
be ex officio Chairman. Democrats harped upon this string 
with great assiduity. The matter waxed so seriously in the 
minds of Democratic partizans that Mr. J. B. Dorr felt con- 
strained to inform the readers of The Dubuque Herald 
[July 12] as follows: [Itahcs in original.] 

Mr. Rusch's selection is no compliment to the intelli- 
gence of the Germans of Iowa. He is neither a smart 
man nor a very well informed man, and what is more, 
he cannot talk the English language zirell enough to preside 
over the Senate. We know what we say, and speak from 
personal knowledge. We esteem him very much of a 
gentleman, but he cannot preside over the Senate. 

And we venture the prediction, if he is elected that he 
either resigns the office, or he zvill get sick, or someone 
else zvill get sick, so as to require his absence, and that 
in no case zvill he preside over the Senate during the 
Session. 

When an editor of the character and reputation of Mr. Dorr 
permitted himself to indulge in such adverse reflections it may 
easily be imagined that the asseverations of the undisciplined 
and irresponsible disputants in partisan debates in grocery 
stores and grogeries and at the country cross-roads v.'ere both 
fragrant and lurid with reckless assertion and fearful predic- 
tion. It was not long before criticism of Mr. Rusch's incapacity 
as an orator and his deficiencies in expression descended to 
consideration of the minutia of his lingual ability and concluded 
in crass borrishness. His difficulty in ennuncating his den- 
tals or "lisping sounds," namely the "Th's," were descanted 
upon with great unction and made the subject of many vapid 
witticisms and now and then the point of a gross suggestion 
heard usually only among loafers or potwallopers. 

The fact that Mr. Rusch did not enter the canvass simul- 
— 7:5 — 



taneously with Mr. Kirk-vvood and no explanation was forth- 
coming for some weeks seemed to confirm all those concerned 
about his linguistic accomplishments. When after much chafing 
and heckling the state central committee of the Republicans 
announced Mr. Rusch's itinerary, confined to a short circuit 
in Southeastern Iowa, and further announced that he would 
speak chiefly in the German language'' smiles and sneers 
became shouts and "we told you so" split the air. 

The pettiness of some of the comments indulged in by even 
the foremost Democratic editors anent Mr. Rusch is illustrated 
in the sentiments in The IVar Eagle, a paper established that 
year at Burlington and published as a special campaign journal 
by Gen. James ^^.I. Morgan: "The Davenport Gazette threatens 
that Mr. Rusch in about a week from date will take the stump. 
It also informs us that Mr. Carl Schurz, of Wisconsin, and 
some other Snicklefritz, with his cousin, Bumbernickle. of 
Cincinnati, have been invited to come and help him." Then 
follows one of tlie gross suggestions mentioned above. W*e 
expect and tolerate more or less flat facetiousness in the 
give-and-take of private conversation, and especially in the 
horseplay which is incident to the camaraderie of the street 
corner and country cross-roads ; but for a leading party paper 
to refer to such leaders as Mr. Schurz and Judge Stallo in such 
fashion and hope thereby to win applause and votes from the 
Germans demonstrated a high degree of impudence and im- 
prudence or of desperation. 

The Republicans shrewdly reprinted all or nearly all of 
such attacks upon ^Ir. Rusch, knowing that they were two- 
edged in character and that the reaction would be as favorable 
as the design of the thrust was hostile. The pride of Germans 
would induce as much resentment of such attacks as the 
prejudice of "Americans" would induce ridicule. Many of 
the retorts of Republican editors effectively turned the point 
of the thrusts to their advantage ; re-iterating and emphasizing 
the essential antagonism of slavery to the welfare of the 
foreign-born. Thus Mr. Dunham in the Hawkeye [June 30] 
taking notice of the remarks of Messrs. Baker and Samuels 
rejoined that they exhibited the "animus of Africanized Dem- 

— 74 — 



ocracy. Ready to use the army and navy to capture a stray 
nigger, but unwilling to protect naturalized citizens in their 
persons — loud in their professions of love for foreigners but 
ready to denounce and ridicule any one, however worthy, who 
may be proposed by his friends as a candidate for office, yir. 
Rusch is under the ban. Instead of having drawn his first 
inspiration, like the magniloquent Samuels, upon the classic 
banks of the Shenandoah, he had the misfortune to be born 
on the Rhine and to have lisped his first infant accents in 
vulgar German. Samuels says that Rusch is no account — 
no better than a wooden man. He is a clever gentleman, an 
old citizen of Scott county, and probably the largest farmer in 
Iowa, but being a "Dutchman" he has no rights which an 
F. F. V. is bound to respect." 

The Republicans nevertheless felt themselves at some dis- 
advantage because of the widespread and repeated attacks 
upon the capacity of IMr. Rusch and they sought assiduously 
to counteract the charges of the Democrats by specific exhibits. 
One of the best rejoinders in defense was given by ]\Ir. Howell 
in The Gate City [July 16]. He reprints the substance of a 
private letter to a citizen of Keokuk, the writer of which had 
known Mr. Rusch in the Legislature and had an intimate 
knowledge of the man and his character and conduct. The 
name of the writer was not disclosed and it may be inferred 
that his letter was not designed for the public ; but Mr. Howell 
vouches for his character and assures his readers that they 
may "repose entire confidence in the judgment he expresses." 
A summary is given here. 

Mr. Rusch was about thirty-five years of age. He had been 
a resident of Scott county about thirteen years. He had been 
educated for the Lutheran ministry and took orders ; but soon 
abandoned it. He was a thoroughly trained University man, 
familiar with the Classics and with other European languages 
besides the German and English. His mastery of English was 
evidenced by the fact that his articles had passed the censorship 
of Horace Greeley and other prominent publishers. He had 
been twice elected to the State Senate of Iowa and in that body 
he had become familiar not only with our state's history and 

— 75 — 



public policy and laws but with the parliamentan," procedure of 
the body over which he would preside. In that body he had 
made himself an influential member. There was no man on 
the Democratic ticket, save Judge Mason better qualified for 
high pubhc office than Mr. Rusch ; and he far excelled in 
education his competitor on the Democratic ticket. The writer 
had not originally favored Mr. Rusch's nomination but on 
canvassing the f>ros and cons of his nomination he says : . . . . 

"When I came to look over the state to see how the 

Convention could have done better. I soon concluded that the 
right man had been selected for the right place and that a 
better nomination could not have been made. Indeed I believe 
that his nomination was not only right in itself and due to the 
German Republicans, but was also a master stroke of polio,' 
as to its effect on the interests of the State at large." 

XV. 

The tactics of the Republican editors in noticing or in 
repelling the attacks on Mr. Rusch were in all respects, so far 
as I can discover, admirable in temper and tone and most 
effective in rejoinder and retort. On July 29 The Hazvkcye at 
Burlington dealt at length with the attacks on Mr. Rusch in 
a long leader that was extensively reprinted by the Republican 
press of the state. Mr. Dunham [or perchance Senator Grimes 
who was believed by the Democrats to be at the time a part 
owner of Mr. Dunham's paper and was in constant conference 
with him] expressed views that seem at first glance to be 
slightly different from those just cited from The Gate City. 
The contents of the article demonstrate again the constant 
and powerful effect of the "Two Year" Amendment of the 
Old Bay State in the campaign that year on this side of the 
Mississippi. The article is reproduced: 

Why Mr. Rusch w.\5 Xomixated. 

It may seem strange to some, that a party which has 
been so long boasting of its s\Tnpathy for foreigners, 
should select Mr. Rusch as the object of their most violent 
opposition, and seek to arouse a feeling against him on 
account of his foreign birth ; but such is the fact, what- 
— 76 - 



ever may be the cause of it, as may be seen by any one 
who takes the trouble to read in all the Democratic papers 
the sneers at him as a "Dutchman" who "can t speak pass- 
able English" and who "may possibly preside over the 
Senate in a tolerable manner with the assistance ot an 
interpreter." with various other allusions to the same 
effect, as false as they are malicious. This course of rid- 
icule is followed by the statement that ^Ir Rusch is not 
selected on account of any personal qualifications or be- 
cause the Republican party has any sympathy with our 
German population, but merely as a stroke of policy, and 
as an off<^et to the Massachusetts amendment, which it 
was feared mi^ht exert a dangerous influence. Now we 
have no intention of vindicating Mr. Rusch from such 
personal assaults, for such vindication is unnecessary ; but 
we are unwilling that any one should believe that his 
nomination was secured only as a political stroke and 
would not have occurred except in the present juncture 
of affairs, for such is not the case. 

The Germans form a large element of our population 
which is daily increasing in numbers and influence, and 
candid men acknowledge them to be among our most 
worthv citizens. They are chiefly men who have enter- 
tained so strong an attachment to liberty and so strong a 
desire to enjoy it and transmit it to their posterity, that 
they have left behind their homes, their friends, and all 
that thev have held dear (and the German's devotion to 
his Fatherland is proverbial), to pass their lives among 
people of different customs and language. Ihey caiiie 
here enduring all privations, to escape oppression, ihe 
Republican party, being a party whose cardmal maxim 
was love of freedom and resistance to the extension ot 
slaverv, expected, as it had a right to expect, their warm 
support. The result has verified their expectations, for 
we see that as thev have become acquainted with the spirit 
of our institutions, and the tendencies of the different 
parties, thev adopt the Republican platform. Thus the 
Germans constitute a large proportion of the Republican 
party and therefore should have an influence in its Coun- 
cils and a share in its honors. The party ought to respect, 
as it certainlv does, this element, and receive it as it has 
in Mr. Rusch's nomination, into the closest fellowship. 
And there is another reason why this nomination is 
peculiarly appropriate. The Two Year Amendment in 
Massachusetts, though passed by a handful of votes, and 
— 77 — 



repudiated by our party all over the Union, has been 
called a Keiniblican measure, and heralded forth by the 
Democratic press throus:hout the country as an index of 
the spirit of the Republican party. It was eminently 
proper then, — though not necessary to the success of the 
party, for that is too firmly fixed to rest in any doubt, 
whoever may be the candidates ; as showinj^ that the 
Republicans of the West recognize native and adopted 
citizens as standing in the same position, and entitled to 
equal privileges. And the enthusiasm, with which Mr. 
Rusch's nomination has been received, proves what joy 
the people feel in having an opportunity to vindicate 
themselves from the charge of advocating prescriptive 
policy. 
Mr. Rusch, nevertheless, continued to be assailed ad libitum. 
There was a double concentration upon him as we shall see, 
both editors and stump speakers pitching upon him. A month 
and a half after the above was written, Mr. Howell had to 
observe: "Xo other Republican candidate of either [sic] party 
is treated with such indignity, and it is done towards Mr. 
Rusch by these Locofoco leaders in order to excite Know 
Nothing hostility and cast reproach and contempt uix)n the 
German nation." The fact of the abuse will be conceded ; and 
a i^art of the explanation as to the purpose thereof may be 
admitted to be true ; but as Mr. Schade was then one of those 
assailing Mr. Rusch it does not follow that the purpose was 
wholly to arouse Know Nothings against him. (lerman Demo- 
crats perceived in Mr. Rusch a most potent ally of the Republi- 
can party and the violence of their assaults upon him measured 
their appreciation of his importance in the canvass. They were 
not hurling their bolts at magpies and blackbirds. 

Mr. Howell after noting the fact just adverted to turned 
the point back upon the Democrats with success. He closed 
with an appeal to Germans: 

"Germans of Iowa, have you not the spirit to resent this 
foul outrage ( refers to attacks while attempting to speak at 
Keokuk] upon your worthy countryman, in whose person you 
are all insulted. For if Rusch is not fit to hold office in this 
country, then there is no German that is. Are the Germans 
all willing to acknowledge themselves what they are accounted 

— 78 — 



by the Democratic leaders, mere 'voting stock' and by their 
votes to countenance and endorse such scandalous treatment 
of their countryman. Nicholas J. Ruscli^ We shall see." 

It is i)assing strange that the Democratic editors and party 
mana-ers did not anticipate that such tirades and such tactics 
as they indulged in would thus be turned to account by the 
Republicans. 

XVI. 

Some of the attacks upon Mr. Rusch were more successful 
because they were public in character rather than personal. 
Several of them may be noted. He was a "hold over" Senator 
and soon after the state convention Democrats began to prod 
him with questions as to the propriety of one wearing the toga 
of that high office and using it as a cloak for a candidate for 
tlie next to the highest state office within the bestowal of the 
electors. Whether his own sense of the fitness of things 
prompted him ; or political prudence suggested his course, or 
Democratic darts stung and impelled him ; we cannot say : but 
certain it is that on August 2 he forwarded to the Secretary of 
State a letter resigning his office as Senator. 

Other attacks were but partially successful for they were 
of the sort that "cut both ways." 

In the fore part of August [4] Mr. Wm. Porter made what 
he deemed a vigorous thrust that he believed neither Mr. Rusch 
nor his party supporters could parry. Under the caption 
" 'That' Sweet German Accent' " which begins with the asser- 
tion: "Black Republicanism is so thoroughly mixed with Know 
Nothingism, that give them an opportunity, and the 'levin' of 
nativism will work ;"— Mr. Porter recalled a bill introduced 
in the State Legislature in 1858 [Feb. 6] by Mr. J. F. Wilson 
of Fairfield, then one of the Republican state leaders, "to 
preserve the purity of Elections." Among its provisions was 
one requiring all naturalized citizens in case their right to vote 
was challenged at the polls to produce thereupon their cer- 
tificates of naturalization and also to declare upon oath then 
and there that the deponent was the identical person named in 
said certificate. The bill aroused intense opposition at the time 

— 79 — 



but was defeated by what English politicians call a "fluke." 
One of the members favorable to it was called away by reason 
of illness in his family and the matter was forced to an issue 
and the bill failed to carry by one vote. 

The bill was bitterly fought. It was denounced as working 
a gross and invidious discrimination against the foreign-born. 
Mr. Porter called attention to the fact that Mr, Rusch was one 
of those voting for the bill. That provision, Mr. Porter as- 
serted, degraded the foreigner; it proclaimed that his simple 
word was not good; that the exaction of an oath in addition 
to the tender of his certificate of Naturalization was public 
degradation ; and he called upon all Germans and foreign-born 
and the friends of the foreign-born to "remember him" on 
election day. His editorial with its taking title was reprinted 
in many a Democratic paper. 

From a slightly different angle Mr. J. B. Dorr recounted in 
The Dubuque Herald [Sept. 21] the proceedings in the House 
of Representatives when the bill passed that body. After 
giving in detail the provisions of the proposed act and the votes 
during its passage in "one of the most remarkable struggles 
ever witnessed in a Legislative body" when "all parliamentary 
rules were violated by the arbitrary will of a determined 
majority "and the Democrats precipitately abandoned the Hall 
in a body leaving the House without a quorum :" — Mr. Dorr 
then asserted that the Massachusetts Amendment compelled 
foreign born citizens to reside in the state two years ; but the 
Act proposed in Iowa "rejects the oath of every foreign-born 
citizen, even though he may have lived in the State a score of 
years. It applies to every naturalized voter so long as he 
resides in Iowa, and was intended to drive him from the polls, 
for surely no naturalized voter would suffer himself to be in- 
sulted so grossly. 

"Let German Republicans think of this " 

Mr. Dorr strangely enough omitted — from negligence we 
may be sure — to mention that Mr. Rusch had supported the 
bill in the attempt to pass it in the State Senate, notwithstand- 
ing its "odious section." His long leader was headed — "The 
Republican Germans of Iowa." It was reprinted widely by 

— 80 — 



his contemporaries. At Muscatine The Democratic Enquirer 
[Sept. 29] reprinted the article with the followmg "Scare 
heads :" 

Gi-RMANs! Rivvn! Rkad! 



MORE REPUBLICAN LOVE FOR THE FOREIGNERS. 



Let Every Foreign-Born Citizen Point to this Document 
When Asked by a RepubUcan to Vote for their Ticket. 
As Senator Grimes wrote Mr. Kirkwood it was rather 
difficult to make points against Mr. Rusch on this score. He 
was not a stupid bigot who denied that there were evils mcident 
to the process of naturalization and the grant of the franchise. 
He openly admitted their existence and in 1858 joined with 
his native fellow citizens in an effort at substantial reform. 
In his letter to Greeley's Tribune he had reasserted his willing- 
ness to institute definite reforms to secure the abolishment of 
the evils complained oi.'\ The fact that some particular 
provisions designed to safeguard the ballot might now and 
then work a hardship upon a man who could not instantly lay 
his hands upon his certificate of naturalization was not a ma- 
terial and certainlv not an insuperable objection to a well con- 
sidered Registry law, such as all fair minded citizens conceded 
to be urgently needed. The assumption beneath the arguments 
and appeals of Messrs. Porter and Dorr was not exactly com- 
plimentarv to the Germans whom they sought to allure. It 
took for granted that all Teutons were either obtuse to and 
oblivious of the evils that perverted elections, or that they 
were alive to them but would be obstinate in denial of their 
existence because of perverse notions of race pride ; and con- 
sequently they would regard with energetic discontent any 
suggestion of remedial legislation that incidentally or indirectly 
appeared to discriminate against the foreign-born in the opera- 
tion of the electoral machinery. 

While Democratic editors were thus attacking Mr. Rusch 
^^Nezv York Tribune, April 11, 1859. See Geschichts Blatter 
Op. at., p. 219-222. 

— 81 - 



and appealing- to Germans against him in such a fashion as to 
commend him at the same time to nativistic propagandists they 
were playing on the other side of the line themselves, striving 
insidiously to arouse the Know Nothings and "Teetotalers" 
against him and doing it in such wise as to secure him the 
favor of the Germans. From Burlington The Dubuque Herald 
received the follovv^ing from one of its omniscient corres- 
pondents [July 12] : 

For Lieutenant Governor the Republicans have nomi- 
nated a German, as an illustration of the manner in which 
"Americans shall rule America," with the distinct under- 
standing that the American party will quietly wipe off the 
name of Mr. Rusch from the ticket, whilst the nomination 
will delude the Germans into support of the rest of the 
ticket of the Republican party. Mr. Rusch is the author 
of the lager beer provision in the late liquor law, which 
may secure him the votes of a few. It is understood upon 
all hands that the nomination of Mr. Rusch was a peace 
ofiFering to the Germans in atonement for the fact that the 
whole of the balance of the ticket were Know Nothings 
and that in a quiet way he will be defeated by his 
own party. 

Such comments and such suggestions were put forth with 
much fondness by the Democrats. Several facts should have 
made them hesitate to exploit them very vigorously because 
they had a narrow and uncertain basis. First, when a man is 
put forth by partizans, representing a force or faction not 
theretofore honored with nominations, the majority factors 
of the party almost invariably accept him because they discern 
a necessity that coerces all parties to it to promote the purpose 
of the nominaticMi. Tlie American elements that joined in the 
nomination had personal and partizan local interests that might 
have been presumed to have had force and weight sufficient to 
compel them to cooperate to insure their common, as well 
as, the public welfare. Second, the Germans, no less than the 
Americans, knew that Mr. Rusch had been honored twice by 
the Republicans by election to the State Senate, a high political 
honor in ante helium days, and that, too, in one of the first 
counties of the state in point of population and wealth ; and 
they knew further that his nomination could not have been 

— 82 — 



an ill-considered act of the convention when Mr. Rusch was 
chosen in preference to such state notables as Judges John 
Edwards and W. H. Hamilton. Third, such comments at least 
split even and very likely gave a net advantage to Mr. Rusch, 
for Americans were not alarmed thereby and Germans were 
impressed by the fact that Mr. Rusch more likely than not 
would both maintain and further their racial pride and protect 
what peculiar interests they might feel that they had. 

Mr. Rusch's senatorial record was again assailed and again 
with political effects that gave him as much benefit in the 
reaction as the attack did him damage in the onset. Again 
it demonstrated that the Republican candidate had a sturdy 
character and a stock of solid convictions on one of the most 
hotly debated questions of that day — a question which even 
in these days causes endless heart-burning and bitter dissension 
— namely, the admission of the children of Negroes to the 
common or public schools. Under the Code of 1851 the 
Schools were available only for "white persons." In a general 
Act governing public instruction in the state adopted in 1858 
it was provided that local school boards might provide "separ- 
ate schools" for the "colored youth" except in cases "where 
by unanimous consent of the persons sending to the school 
in the sub-district, they may be permitted to attend with the 
white youth." [Ch. 52 ; Sec. 30.] The requirement of 'unanim- 
ous consent" was tantamount to prohibition and exclusion. 
When that section of the act was under consideration in the 
State Senate an amendment allowing the admission of colored 
children to the common schools upon the consent of the "maj- 
ority" of the white patrons was introduced and the proposal 
obtained but seven out of thirty votes in that body. Among 
the seven so voting was Mr. Rusch. 

This act of the Senator from Scott county, Mr. Wm. Porter 
professed to regard with something approaching holy horror. 
The person so charged and convicted was unthinkable and 
unspeakable. Such a man was beyond the pale of decent and 
respectable folk. Mr. Porter thus exclaims [Aug. 11] : 

Here then we have the Republican candidate for Lieu- 
tenant Governor committed on the record in favor of 

— sr? — 



mingling white and black children in the same schools. 
Here we have him voting for this most ultra measure of 
abolitionism — a measure so odious that it could command 
only sei'cn in a Republican Senate. Rusch openly records 
his vote in favor of this. 

Remember, the Lieutenant Governor is by virtue of his 
office President of the Board of Education — has a voice 
in making our school laws. Note this, and then remember 
how he stands on the record. 
Mr. Porter's editorial was veritably a two edged sword. 
Among the stout-hearted, stifif-backed Southern folk in the 
State the exhibit of the Senate record on Mr. Rusch's vote 
made him Anathema ; and if that were the only fact on which 
decision turned it would have made him impossible with the 
vast majority of the pro-slavery partizans among the Republi- 
cans. And, of course, it would not attract votes from the 
Democratic ranks, save perchance those with Free Soil pro- 
clivities. On the other hand such a vote would enhance his 
strength mightily among the strenuous anti-slavery forces. 
This conclusion would hold true of the radical elements in 
particular — e. g., among the Abolitionists, the Garrisonites and 
promoters of the Underground Railway, among the advocates 
of Land Reform, the Maine Law, and Woman's Rights and a 
new Social Order, such as Communists and Socialists. The 
losses Mr. Rusch would suffer by the refusal of the Negro- 
phobists among the Southerners to vote for him would be fully 
offset, and perhaps more than offset, by gains of the votes of 
those who would be attracted by his courageous stand on an 
unpopular measure when,, almost solitary in the matter. 

XVII. 

The political canvass in Iowa in 1859 was not unique or 
peculiar in any noteworthy respect and yet one can perceive 
more than ordinary energy in the prosecution of the cam- 
paign. The leaders of both parties instinctively realized that 
the struggle was a crucial one and its consequences would not 
be merely local but national. All felt that the tilt of the 
balances in 1860 would be controlled by the results of the 
contest in which they were then engaged ; and hence the 
energy with which the campaign was promoted. 

— 84 — 



The canvass that year was enlivened by numerous joint 
debates or discussions. Candidates for state and county offices 
or their committees for them, frequently arranged such 
encounters ; or they invited them. Thus the Chairman of the 
Democratic State Committee in announcing Gen. Dodge's 
speaking dates and places publicly asked Mr. Kirkwood "to 
be present at these meetings and address the people." The 
Democrats as soon as Mr. Rusch's itinerary was announced 
immediately made plans for Mr. or "Colonel" Schade as his 
partisans invariably called him, to meet the Republican can- 
didate for Lieutenant Governor and "divide time" with him. 
Mr. Schade was a trained and tried public speaker, having 
been an editorial writer and lecturer and traveler for years 
past. Mr. Rusch was not a tried speaker. Neither he nor 
his party advisers apparently were anxious to arrange such a 
series of joint debates ; at the same time for obvious reasons 
they did not care to refuse. While no formal arrangements 
were made the encounters occurred, nevertheless. The conse- 
quences, while not so dramatic and important as in the case of 
the encounters of Gen. Dodge and Mr. Kirkwood, were inter- 
esting and instructive. 

Mr. Rusch began his speaking tour at Keokuk, Tuesday 
evening, August 30. The Republican County Central Com- 
mittee, presuming that he would speak "chiefly in German," 
as expressly announced, had arranged that Mr. Samuel F. 
Miller, then one of the most effective lawyers and public 
speakers of Keokuk, take a portion of the time to address the 
English speaking portion of the audience. Mayor Leighton, 
who presided, announced, however, that Democrats had urged 
that Mr. Schade be allowed a part of the time, and Mr. Rusch 
not caring to refuse, the program was modified. It was 
arranged that Messrs. Rusch and Schade should discuss the 
issues in German. Mr. Rusch, however, did not wish to 
ignore the English speaking portion of his audience and it 
was announced that he would speak in English for a while, 
and that said portion of his speech was not to be included in 
the allotments of time between him and Mr. Schade in the 
joint discussion. As the meeting was primarily Mr. Rusch's 

— 85 — 



he was within his rights in thus apportioning the time. It 
lead, nevertheless, to misunderstanding and a clash. The 
precise merits in the controversy that ensued in Verandah 
Hall that night I can not apportion with assurance because I 
have not had access to the adverse accounts in the Democratic 
papers. 

Mr. Rusch, contrary to expectations, not only lead off 
with a passable speech, but, if we may credit Mr. Howell's 
account, with a very "telling" speech. He not only was 
"understood," and easily understood, but Mr. Howell's goes 
so far as to say that "Mr. Rusch held the audience spell- 
bound for about three quarters of an hour by one of the best 
political speeches of the campaign. He interspersed his speech 
with some capital anecdotes, which brought the house down." 
He dealt vigorously with "Squatter Sovereignty" as it mani- 
fested itself in the Dred Scott case and in the Lecompton 
constitution. He denounced "in strong and eloquent language 
the inconsistency and moral depravity of a party which can 
refuse the honest white laborer a free home for himself and 
his wife and children to live and toil upon, while it expends 
all its energies and proposes to give the treasure of the gov- 
ernment to purchase new marts [Cuba] for the buying and 
selling of human beings." After referring to his own ex- 
patriation and naturalization in this country he appears to 
have concluded his remarks in English by denouncing "the 
course of the Democratic party in protecting naturalized 
citizens only while they remained quietly at home needing no 
protection, and afford him no protection in a foreign land 
when he most needs it." 

When Mr. Rusch concluded the English portion of his 
initial speech and was about to proceed to address his com- 
patriots in their native tongue he was interrupted and some- 
thing approximating a disorderly discussion and a disturbance 
of the peace occurred. The Democrats, the Gate Citv assures 
us, were so astonished at Mr. Rusch's ability as a speaker in 
English and so chagrined at the effect his speech evidently 
had upon the audience that one of their leaders arose and 
insisted that Mr. Rusch had used all the time properly his 

— 86 — 



under the a.i;rcemeiit and that Mr. Schade sliould be given 
the platform. Mayor Leighton and Judge J. F. Rankin for 
the RepubHcan County Committee both denied that the inter- 
rupter was well advised and refused to accede to the demand. 
They professed to fear that Mr. Schade, if given the right of 
way would appropriate the remainder of the evening. A sharp 
and boisterous controversy ensued with increasing antagon- 
ism until finally on a signal from Gen. Y. P. Van Antwerp, a 
prominent Democratic leader of the state, all Democrats left 
the hall and a meeting was held by the seceders on a nearby 
street which was addressed by ■Mr. Schade.-- In his next 
issue Mr. Howell recurs to the matter under the caption 
"Insulting the Germans" and charges that the Democrats had 
evidently determined to "hound down" Mr. Rusch. Mr. 
Howell declares that no other public man was subject to such 
gross interruptions ; and that the Democrats "reserve this 
.shameless and insulting treatment for the German candidate 
simply because he is a German."' 

Mr. Rusch's progress up the river was successful if we 
may accept the enthusiastic accounts of The Gate City [Sep. 
5.] He was attended by the persistent and insistant ISIr. 
Schade who iiung upon his flanks and asked to divide time and 
space with him. Daily dispute apparently did not enhance 
the mutual respect of the two disputants. In the encounters 
Mr. Rusch always opened. Mr. Schade followed with an hour's 
speech, Mr. Rusch closed. At the meeting in Franklin Centre 
in Lee county, August 31, i^.Ir. Rusch's ability at effective 
repartee was demonstrated. The account reports as follows : 
"Schade's opening remark was : "Mr. Rusch has 

22 Among his "locals" on September 1. the date on which Mr. 
Howell gives the above account of Mr. Rusch's speech in Verandah 
Hall, appears the following that illustrates one of the turns of local logic: 

"Donnellan's Circular to the Democracy in regard to the Washing- 
ton City project of "strengthening the outposts" for the coming election, 
estimates that the Locofoco party will have the aid of "five thousand 
Americans." Was it in view of that fact that the Democracy "put no 
foreigner on guard" in the State ticket, and that they insult Mr. Rusch 
and break up his meetings by clamoring to force an "outsider" on the 
audience, and then withdrawing in a body." 

— 87 — 



spoken to you a. long time, and every fifth word was 
'nigger.' " Rnsch, in his reply, quoted this assertion, and 
said : "Now you know, my fellow citizens, that, in my 
opening speecli. I did not use the word at all. But I did 
use the phrase 'my German fellow citizens,' very often. I 
do not know that it was every fifth word, but as Mr. 
Schade says every fifth word was nigger he must allude 
to the phrase 'German fellow citizens.' " 

Schade. — ''Oh, no! no! I did not mean that" (Great 
laughter). 

Rusch. — "I presume he did not mean that. Of course, 
being a German, he would not call himself a nigger." 

According to Mr. HoAvell the burden of Mr. Schade's 
speeches was "nigc'ers, whiskey and Know Nothings." Mr. 
Rusch's good humor and happy hits finally ruffled his temper 
and at West Point and at Ft. Madison rejoinders and retorts 
became hot and sliarp. Matters went from bad to worse in 
the increase of acrimonious assertion and reckless statement. 
Disorderly disturl)ances were almost certain to mar the order 
of the meetings and finally at Burlington Mr. Rusch gave no- 
tice that he would not debate with Mr. Schade unless he could 
secure the specific endorsement of the Democratic State Cen- 
tral Committee or some one of its members, which body would 
thereby become responsible for some of the reckless state- 
ments alleged to be commonly made by Mr. Schade in his 
speeches. 

An incident in the way of an aside at Sigourney illustrates 
the proneness of mortals to inconsistency of conduct. Bet- 
ween the meeting at Burlington and the encounter of Messrs. 
Rusch and Schade at Oskaloosa. Mr. Schade, on the refusal 
of Mr. Rusch to debate further with him save on one con- 
ditio'.!, made an ai)pointment to speak at Sigourney. Imme- 
diately upon his arrival Mr. Schade was asked by Mr. Mertz, 
the Republican candidate for the lower House of the General 
Assembly [or by the local committeeman for him], to "divide 
time" and discuss the issues in a joint debate. One account bv 
Mr. John Rogers, asserts that while Mr. Schade did not seem 
anxious to debate with him he nevertheless promised, or Mr. 
Mertz, thought that he promised to permit him, Mr. Mertz, 

— 88 — 



to take a part of the afternoon to present his views and de- 
fend himself against recent and pendinor attacks. The local 
opposition to Mr. Mertz was especially vigorous, as we have 
seen ; and it was current rumor that Mr. Schade had been 
scheduled for Sigourney. particularly to assail Mr. Mertz and 
weaken liis strength among the Germans of Keokuk county. 
Mr. Mertz feeling confident that he could hold his own with 
Mr. Schade. and being keenly alive to the powerful efforts 
then in progress against him challenged his countrymen, hop- 
ing doubtless to convince his cynical opponents that he was not 
afraid and was capable and perhaps that he could break an 
even number of lances with the Teutonic champion of the 
Democrats. Mr. Mertz understood, or alleged that he under- 
stood, that Mr. Schade was to open with an hour's speech 
and then Mr. Mertz was to have an hour and a half, and Mr. 
Schade was to close : and with this expectation he attended at 
the place designated at the appointed hour. For some reason 
Mr. Schade delayed, or was delayed for a considerable time 
past the hour agreed upon. He finally appeared and then 
contrary to Mr. Mertz's understanding spoke far beyond the 
time arranged. So much time did he take that it was near 
dusk when he concluded and the crowd was beginning to 
leave the hall. Realizing that it was futile for him to try 
at that late hour to make any rejoinder, Mr. Mertz and his 
friends in a state of indignation and disgust left and made the 
streets ring with their protests. Mr. Mertz, apparently re- 
ceived at Mr. Schade's hands precisely the same treatment that 
he, Mr. Schade, complained of so vehemently at Verandah 
Hall. Tt depends upon whose ox is gored as to our state of 
mind about the conduct of affairs. -'* 

xvni. 

The voters in and about Oskaloosa were in fine fettle for 
a bout between the tv.o champions of the Germans. One of 
the editors of llie Oskaloosa Times, and incidentally Presi- 
dent Buchanan's postmaster at that point, was Mr. R. T. 
Wellslager. He had been active, if not foremost in the Demo- 

23 Life in the West, September 15, 1859. 



cratic County Convention in securing the introduction and 
passage of resolutions condemning the "Two Year" Amend- 
ment and he was alert to the picturesque as well as political 
phases of the situation as it affected the Germans. The chair- 
man of the local Democratic Committee was another sturdy 
German, a Mr. A. F. Seeburger. 

Mr. Rusch arrived in Oskaloosa and he was soon informed 
of the arrival of Mr. Schade. Mr. Seeburger on behalf of 
the local Democratic Committee asked ]\Ir. Rusch if he would 
debate the issues with Mr. Schade. IMr. Rusch refused to 
do so unless a memlier of the State Central Committee would 
stand sponsor for the views of Mr. Schade. One account 
informs us that Mr. Seeburger and the local leaders resented 
this condition as derogatory and refused to submit. Public 
comment was adverse and animated. Judge Wm. M. Stone 
of Knoxville was present at the first conference and told Mr. 
Rusch, it is alleged, that he Avould lose votes by his refusal 
to enter a joint discussion. In consequence negotiations soon 
brought about an arrangement and the German champions 
broke lances again. Their encounter had one variation from 
previous meetings and it illustrates the high degree of personal 
bitterness which characterized the campaign. 

Mr. Schade, as we have seen, assailed the Republicans in 
no gentle terms for what he pronounced their hypocrisy re- 
specting the "Temperance" question. The vigor of his de- 
nunciation was due in large measure to his belief, and the 
concurrent belief of the majority of Democrats, that not only 
was the Republican party facing both ways on that question 
but that the Republican leaders — and the most influential lead- 
ers too — were personally insincere in their views and impudent 
in their conduct. In the course of his rejoinder to Mr. Rusch's 
opening speecli Mr. Schade related a current report respecting 
Senator Harlan: and he assured his hearers that it "was a 
well authenticated anecdote." 

On the evening after the State Convention at Des Moines, 
so Dame Rumor alleged, a German citizen of Ft. Madison 
entered a saloon; and while there reviving his spirits Senator 
Harlan came in and asked for some "good brandy." The 

— 90 — 



article with necessary adjuncts and appurtenances was handed 
him and he thereupon poured out a generous "horn." A 
stranger in a distant corner then came forward and accosted 
him with "How are you, Senator Harlan?'' The Senator, 
the relator would have us helieve, was instantly thrown into 
obvious confusion, his face and features being an interesting 
study in the irridescent hues of embarrassment. With num- 
erous ahems, halts and hitches, he essayed an explanation. He 
was sufifering from severe abdominal distress and came in to 
obtain the stimulant as "a medicine" — as a pain-killer. Where- 
upon from another corner, another "Dutchman" roared : Haw ! 
Haw ! Haw ! I have been sick the same way four times in the 
last hour." 

Such an astonishing recital produced, as it was expected 
to produce, a big sensation that shook the assembled voters 
with contrary emotions. The Democrats were amazed and 
delighted and roared with contemptuous guffaws: and the 
Republicans were stunned with the daring performance of 
Mr. Schade. 

When i\Ir. Schade closed and Mr. Rusch spoke in re- 
joinder, he instantly branded the allegation affecting Senator 
Harlan as "a baseless fabrication and a foul slander" and is 
reported to have said, "Vill de shentiman pe kint enuff to 
name the Sherman from dis place who saw Meester Harlan 
do dis thing !^" 

One account tells us that immediately "about a half dozen 
Germans, and a couple of Americans arose" and informed 
Mr. Rusch, or asseverated that a certain German, whom they 
named was present in the aforesaid saloon and witnessed the 
meeting mentioned and was the authority for the story current 
and related by Mr. Schade. The account from which I have 
extracted the foregoing assures us that Mr. Rusch "sensibly 
subsided and went off in a defense of the Maine Law and an 
advocacy of temperance generally." 

The attempt to besmirch Senator Harlan and drag his fair 
name through the mire is interesting and instructive for many 
reasons because it is so eminently typical of endless like at- 

— 91 — 



tempts that have enlivened and embittered political campaigns 
since the memory of man. 

In the first place, so far as I can discover Demociatic 
papers did not enlarge upon Mr. Schade's exposure. Indeed 
I have found the recital summarized above only in the cor- 
respondence of The Dubuque Daily Herald [Sept. 4]. Mr. 
Dorr, although he so far gave countenance to the charge as to 
reprint, it did not further dignify it by editorial mention, let 
alone specific endorsement and exploitation. This fact is es- 
pecially significant for it will be recalled that it was about 
this time that Mr. Dorr was openly making serious charges 
against Messrs. Grimes, et al., about their hypocritical conduct 
anent the Temperance question, charging them with intimate 
relations with the liquor traffic and with personal indulgences, 
excessive and reprehensible in character. Mr. Dorr was no 
admirer of Senator Harlan, and we may presume that he would 
have had no scruples whatever that would have prevented him, 
had he suspected that there were solid grounds for the allega- 
tions given notoriety by Mr. Schade, from placing the senior 
Senator from Iowa in the pillory and pelting him with all sorts 
of ugly missiles. Mr. Dorr's silence was eloquent in refutation 
of the canard to which Mr. Schade gave his countenance. 

In the second i)lace the allegation, even if correct and 
taken at its maximum valuation, signified next to nothing. 
The Senator was not accused of inebriety, or of improper in- 
dulgence. All that his accuser ventured to assert or hint at, 
was that he called for and drank that which was not an im- 
moderate amount, and all of which he had a perfect right in 
law and ethics to do. Further if the facts were as alleged 
the Senator's explanation was entitled, both in law and in 
ethics, to the highest presumption men accord each other not 
only in common intercourse but in the courts of honor wherein 
the rules of courtesy control the relations of gentlemen as well 
as all law-abiding persons. Democrats were and of necessity 
should be the last persons to deny that men are presumed to 
be innocent and honest and rightminded and highminded until 
solid evidence, submitted in regular form before a proper 
tribunal, overwhelms such presumption. Otherwise no man, 

— 92 — 



honest, conscientious and honorable, though he may be, is safe 
from hideous and insidious attack that may instantly wreck 
reputation and peace and make life intolerable and ultimately 
impossible. 

In the third place conceding for the nonce that there was 
really some substance to the "story" thus given notoriety at 
Oskaloosa, the facts and their significance were utterly ir- 
relevant and immaterial so far as the public issues in contro- 
versy were concerned. An administration or a political party 
is to be endorsed or unhorsed because its policies fail notably 
to satisfy or the conduct of its representatives in the fulfill- 
ment of their official and public duties fall seriously short of 
requirement and not because some member of the party here 
and there may perchance have fallen from grace in his private 
conduct. Webster, Clay and Douglas, Andrew Johnson and 
U. S. Grant, contemporaries and latter-day historians inform 
us, indulged on occasion ; as was the general fashion in those 
days, freely ; and sometimes too freely in "strong drink" ; and 
now and then exhibited some of the untoward effects thereof : 
but their characters and conduct as statesmen— the views, 
policies and reforms promoted by them— were subjects to be 
considered upon their intrinsic merits; they as statesmen, or 
their views were commendable or undesirable according as 
they met the exigencies of the state and fulfilled the canons 
of sane and prudent statesmanship — a conclusion that must 
needs be reached after a scrutiny of a maze of complex situa- 
tions and a network of closely interlaced facts and contrary 
considerations— all as a rule more or less remote from personal 
and private affairs. Within a certain area which lies ill-defined 
between private and public affairs — an area that is a sort of 
thicket or morass of contradictory and divergent considera- 
tions — a man's private character and conduct normally affect 
our judgment and control our determinations in sundry prac- 
tical matters in pohtics. If we are selecting a man to represent 
our particular personal views, or to execute the laws, or to 
perform some special administrative task any gross misconduct 
that exhibits lack of character may cause us, and may properly 
cause us, to suspect the fitness of the person in question for 

— 93 — 



the particular office under consideration. But ordinarily such 
personalia are remote, irrelevant and immaterial. 

Finally, the allegation affecting Senator Harlan was on its 
surface manifestly preposterous. For more than a decade pre- 
ceeding that campaign Senator Harlan had been a man of 
note in Iowa. At the outset he was conspicuous as a preacher, 
and especially as a teacher and schoolman. His contest for the 
office of State Superintendent of Public Instruction in 1848 
had given him state- wide acquaintance and fame — particularly 
as he was thwarted from securing the office by one of those 
turns in electoral contests that makes one's partizans certain 
that an injustice had been worked. His fame had been im- 
mensely enhanced by his election to the Senate of the United 
States in 1855 as a result of the anti-slavery triumph of the 
preceding year when Mr. Grimes was elected Governor of the 
state; and the Democratic majority of the national body de- 
nied him his seat. His subsequent career in the Senate caused 
his character and conduct to be objects of alert and constant 
public scruitny : they were high on the tower, as it were, and 
easily to be observed by the sharpest eyed critics. We may 
be certain that if he was in his private conduct grossly at 
variance with his public professions his conferes of the Metho- 
dist Church and of the "Maine Law" propaganda would have 
turned upon him with withering scorn and ruthlessly blasted 
his reputation and summarily put a stop to his political career. 

The correspondent of TJie Dubuque Daily Herald who 
gives us the account of the episode at Oskaloosa, who signs 
himself somewhat appropriately '' Nix-Gum- A-Rouse," clouds 
his report with a fog of doubt by his assertion that Mr. 
Rusch in his alleged bewilderment produced by the several 
persons standing forth and maintaining that there was a re- 
liable witness to the facts of the "story" immediately veered 
and "went off" in a defense of the "Maine Law, and an ad- 
vocacy of temperance generally." We may reasonably doubt 
the substantial truth of that statement and the inference and 
implications attaching. Mr. Rusch, we may easily believe, 
instantly denied that Senator Harlan was an arrant hypocrite 
and he might easily have been perplexed by the stout in- 

— 94 — 



sistence that there were witnesses to prove baseless his faith 
in his character. But it is a violent improbability that a sturdy 
German such as he was — and known and tried opponent of 
the "Alaine Law" such as he was — he would have, merely to 
cover his confusion and recover his position and poise, launch 
forth in a defense of the Maine Law and "Temperance" as 
the propagandi-ts of prohibition technically used the term. 
As a stateman and as a citizen he would, of course, approve 
of the due enforcement of the Maine Law so long as it was 
properly upon the statute books. As a man, he would as all 
sane Germans did then and now, advocate sobriety and tem- 
perance in the proper sense of that much abused term, as 
essential to sound character and true culture. But we may 
doubt if he did more. 

The episode just dealt with may seem so trivial as to be 
unworthy of particular attention and abstractly such undoubt- 
edly is the case. Eminently sensible people would give it short 
shrift, or none at all. But alack, the majority of the people 
comprising "the public.'' is not made up of eminently sensible 
people. The public for the most part is made up of ordinary 
people who have omniverous appetites for inanitities, futilities 
and irrelevancies. In city marts, no less than at the country 
cross-roads ardent partizans seize eagerly upon rumors and 
canards, upon hints and innuendoes and heedlessly exploit 
them. He who hesitates to accept adverse reports, who sharply 
examines the premises and antecedents of current assertions 
and who judges men and measures on public and not on per- 
sonal grounds is the exceptional man. The episode at Oska- 
loosa was a common one and eminently typical of practical 
procedure with the average electorate. 

XIX. 

Partizan criticisms in hotly contested campaigns, whether 
in the way of approval or of disapproval, are always subject 
to such heavy discounts that it is difficult to appraise their 
sis^nificance and value. It is quite clear to one who closely 
examines the contemporary reports and comments upon Mr. 
Rusch's work iti the campaign in 1859 that the Republicans, 

— 95 — 



especially in sections or communities where "Americans" were 
numerous and active, looked forward with anxiety to the part 
which their candidate for Lieutenant Governor would take in 
the canvass. They were obviously fearful that Mr. Rusch's 
reported inability to express himself in tolerable English would 
both disappoint Republicans and alienate dubious voters. They 
were especially sensitive and apprehensive because the Demo- 
crats were ringing the changes upon his unfitness for the par- 
ticular position to which he was nominated because the office 
exacted qualifications in the matter of facile expression, readi- 
ness of apprehension and rapidity in decision in the confusion 
and clash of parliamentary procedure. Familiarity with cor- 
rect English and certainty in expression, discernment of the 
content and significance of words and assurance and con- 
clusiveness in decision constitute a sine qua non in a successful 
presiding office of a Senate. Republicans knew this condition 
was a prerequisite and hence their anxiety. 

Partizan editors in Iowa in ante belhini days as in these 
"scientific" days were addicted to proclaiming and proving 
Black white and White black. Their own candidates were 
broad-minded, high-minded, straightforward, correct and cul- 
tured, patriotic and philosophical and profound : the repre- 
sentatives of the opposing party were ignorant and ill-man- 
nered, petty, perverse and ponderous, unreliable, stupid, tire- 
some. We run up and down the entire gamut of laudatory and 
damnatory expression in following the comments of the press 
upon the merits and progress of the joint discussions of Messrs. 
Rusch and Schade as they made their way up the valley of the 
Des Moines and thence into the northeastern counties. 

Making all allowances Republicans were manifestly agree- 
ably surprised at Mr. Rusch's ability on the platform and the 
Democrats found their presumptions and predictions dis- 
agreeably disturbed. The Republicans fell into more or less 
extravagance in praise of his effort but Democratic com- 
mentators sinned no less in the opposite direction in the way 
of contemptuous comment and derogation. Some Republican 
editors, however, consciously sought to speak of Mr. Rusch's 

— 96 — 



work with decent moderation ; and we shall see that some of 
the Democratic editors succeeded in fair comment. 

Characterizing- Mr. Rnsch's speech at Ft. Madison, or 
rather his rejoinder to Mr. Schade at that place, Mr. Howell, 
who normally was a cautions, conservative writer, says that 
Mr. Rusch "captivated the audience. Full of fiery energy, 
with the grace of the finished orator, with mingled humor, 
irony and invincible logic, he demolished the sophistical argu- 
ments of his opponents and made the "sweet German 

accent" pleasant even to unaccustomed ears. He spoke at con- 
siderable lens-th and to a very late hour, and yet held a ma- 
jority of his German audience to the very last." He concludes 
with : "We only regret that he cannot spend a whole week 
among his countrymen in this county. If he could, we are 
sure that his converts would be counted by scores, if not by 
hundreds.'' 

At Ottumwa Mr. Rusch was no less successful. Another 
cool and careful writer, Mr. J. W. Norris. editor of The Ot- 
tumwa Courier thus records his impressions [Sept. 8] : 

Hon. N. J. Rusch filled his appointment at this place 
on Tuesday afternoon last, to the acceptance of his po- 
litical friends, and in a manner calculated to convince his 
political opponents that it is not only possible to under- 
stand him in English, in which language he spoke, but 
quite impossible to misunderstand him. 

Of Republicanism. His remarks upon the lat- 
ter topic were beautiful, and were never more eloquently 

or truthfully expressed His manner was easy, 

his delivery graceful, his pronimciation of English some- 
what broken, but very slightly and not unpleasantly so, 
and his information on the political topics of the canvass, 
full and accurate. He made a very favorable impression 

We have heard no speaker during the canvass. 

who has a keener perception of the weak points in modern 
Democracy [sic], and who succeeds in bringing them out 
with more telling efifect. 
Even Mr. Rusch's stoutest champions would concede that 
Mr. Norris' comments were pretty strong. 

The comments of Democratic editors upon Mr. Rusch's 
appeals to the electors were, of course, neither commendatory 

— 97 — 



nor charitable. Respecting his speech at Dubuque, where Mr. 
Schade. or the local Democratic leaders arranged a joint dis- 
cussion at the Court House, Mr. J. B. Dorr was caustic and 
contemptuous. "* Mr. Schade spoke first and in German. 
Mr. Rusch spoke in English. Mr. Schade was "dignified and 
argumentative," and he spoke "as if the issues involved were 
serious." But Mr. Rusch! His speech was a farrago of 
stories, silly, stale, stupid, "smutty": his gestures w^ere "lum- 
bering," his manner "grotesque." The primary objective of 
his effort was "Fun" and he measured his success by the roars 
of guffaws he produced by his "stereotyped" platitudes and 
questionable anecdotes. 

In his account of the debate Mr. Dorr declares that Mr. 
Rusch's speech was not worthy of notice. His editorial page 
contradicts his declaration ; for he devotes a leader to it and 
dips his pen in vitriol. He sneers at his pronimciation ; and 
sets out a bill of faults, listing his "dats," his "wens," his 
"vats," his "werrys," his "vichs." his "trees." his "dens." 
He then retails in his German-American vernacular Mr. 
Rusch's "coat t.iil" story whereby he exhibited the career of 
the Democratic doctrine of "Squatter Sovereignty." A Ger- 
man ordered a coat. When delivered the coat was found to 
be three iiiches too long. As the fact annoyed him, his sister 
without consulting her brother had three inches of the coat 
tail cut off. The next morning his wife desiring to appease 
her husband's wrath cut off another three inches but did not 
inform him. Finally the German, when he came down stairs 
the next morning ordered a servant to take the coat to the 
tailor and have three inches removed. Those several "tree" 
inches thus excised Mr. Rusch asserted accurately paralleled 
the experience of the doctrine of "Squatter Sovereignty." 
First, it suffered the loss of "tree" inches in the provisions 
of Douglas' Kansas-Nebraska bill. Second, it was cut again 
in the forcing of the Lecompton Constitution upon the people 
of Kansas. Third, it was about to be trimmed another "tree" 
inches in the enactment of the proposed "Slave Code" for the 
Territories. He might have added that the coat suffered 

24 The Dubuque Daily Herald, September 23, 1859. 
— 98 — 



serious excisions on the announcement of the Dred Scott rul- 
ing and when Douglas made his answers to Abraham Lin- 
coln's questions at Freeport. Mr. Rusch's story sends Mr. 
Dorr's scorn up to the top limits. Throwing his editorial dig- 
nity to one side he contemptuously characterizes the Republi- 
can candidate for Lieutenant Governor as "considerable of a 
goose" and his "coat tail'' story "boyish and silly." 

Immediately following this heavy sentence pronounced 
against Mr. Rusch Mr. Dorr turns to and undertakes to 
demonstrate that the theory of Popular Sovereignty as first 
enunciated by General Gass in the Nicholson letter (which 
he assures us, was merely a restatement of the views of 
Thom.as Jefferson and the Fathers of the Constitution) was 
true and righteous altogether ; and that Douglas' bill in 
1854 was a verification and demonstration of the right of the 
people to rule in their "domestic affairs." Senator Chase of 
Ohio had tried to cut off three inches of the coat Douglas' 
bill provided by denying to the people of the territory the 
right to introduce slavery but the Democratic party had re- 
sisted such perversion of the bill. 

After scrutinizing Mr. Dorr's accounts and comments anent 
Mr. Rusch's speech at Dubuque the conclusion seems fairly 
to be that he protested too much. Mr. Rusch's story may 
have lacked somewhat in fitness or "relativity," and may have 
suffered much in the telling, measured by the standards of 
English heard in drawing rooms wherein cultured folk con- 
verse. Yet it is manifest that it had a "telling" effect and 
apparently "took"' with the electors who heard it: for if it 
was so silly and without pith or point why dignify it by such 
extended consideration and why give it importance by such a 
solemn rejoinder. We may fairly suspect that Mr. Dorr's 
top-lofty contempt was more or less commensurate with his 
personal feeling that the Senator from Scott county made an 
effective speech. 

Mr. Rusch spoke at McGregor in Clayton county north 
of Dubuque on September 23 and Mr. Schade followed him 
speaking on Saturday evening; and we have some interesting 
observations from the pen of Mr. A. P. Richardson. The 

— 99 — 



latter tells us that he went to the appointed place for the 
meeting of Mr. Rusch twice and found no one assembled, 
the hall not being lighted, and he went about other business 
and did not hear Mr. Rusch's speech. But, he informs us, that 
current report was to the effect that it "was a stereotyped 
one of the anecdotal sort, and that he delivers no other." Mr. 
Richardson called upon Mr. Rusch the next day and gives us 
his impressions in some acute and sharp, but not unjust or 
ungracious remarks. Mr. Rusch, he found to be "a tall, slim 
un-German looking German, full of confidence in his election." 
To the inquiry whether he would not find himself "in an em- 
barrassing situation as presiding officer of a body where the 
English language in its nicest shades of meaning was spoken ?" 
Mr. Rush responded : "If I am elected I will study till Jan- 
uary — at present I am not qualified on the rules.'" Mr. Rich- 
ardson then dilates upon the propriety, not to say wisdom 
of electing a man thus handicapped to a position wherein 
linguistic efficiency is a primary prerequisite; and he con- 
cludes with the query: "How would a Yankee do as a Pro- 
fessor in a German Law School ?" 

Abstractly and generally, idealistically and technically Mr. 
Richardson was correct in his adverse comments respecting 
Mr. Rusch. Practically, however, all that he says is appli- 
cable more or less to the majority of candidates for the office 
of Lieutenant Governor. Few of them, comparatively, know 
much about parliamentary law and procedure. They usually 
"study up" the technical rules after the returns from the elec- 
tion enjoin the wisdom of so doing. Partizan associates and 
opponents are wont to be considerate not to say charitable, 
of their deficient knowledge and to deal leniently with their 
delinquencies unless in the exercise of his office he becomes 
personally offensive by reason of grossly unjust rulings or 
arbitrary conduct. Politicians are often remarkably kind 
under such circumstances, if the deficient officer exhibits sin- 
cerity, fairmindedness and earnest purpose to deal consid- 
erately with all parties in interest. '^ 

25 Wishing to test the truth of some of the predictions made during 
the campaign respecting Mr. Rusch's ability as presiding officer of the 

— 100 — 



The next evening "Col." Schade [Democratic editors al- 
ways so designated him] spoke at McGregor. Mr. Richard- 
son gives us a substantial summary of his speech and some 
interesting comments upon the relative merits and character- 
istics of Messrs. Rusch and Schade. "The Colonel is a plain, 
fair talker, slightly embarrassed occasionally for want of an 
English word to convey his ideas, but generally he is correct 
in the use of language. His speech was delivered in a modest, 
convincing manner, no rant, no attempt at buffoonery; his 
statements were literally correct, and his inferences logically 
just." 

Mr. Schade's speech was substantially a reproduction of 
his "Address to the Adopted Citizens of the United States" 
given out by him at Burlington, May 20, the major points 
of Avhich have already been given at some length. Republi- 
canism was the product of the Sectionalism and Know Noth- 
ingism that .were rampant in 1854-55-56. The agitation pro- 
duced by the repeal of the Missouri compromise and the 
uproar over "bleeding Kansas" had subsided and the Extension 
of Slavery was either dead or moribund as a political issue. 
The consequence was that 

Senate by the memories of some of his associates I ventured to write 
Gen. Cyrus Bussey of Washington, D. C. In 1860 Gen. Bussey repre- 
sented Davis County in the State Senate of Iowa. He was a Democrat 
and his recollections are as little subject to adverse bias as any of Mr. 
Rusch's contemporaries. Below I give some extracts from his letter 
dated at Washington, March 18, 1914 : 

"I knew Governor Rusch quite well. I was the youngest member 
of the Senate of the eighth general Assembly, not yet twenty-six years 
when elected. Lt. Gov. Rusch when presiding over the Senate frequently 
called members to the chair while he absented himself for half an hour. 
On one occasion he called me to preside. Soon after I took the gavel 
an exciting question was presented and half a dozen members were on 
their feet at one time. Without parlimentary experience I was soon 
confused by the conflicting motions. I was greatly relieved by the 
return of Lt. Gov. Rusch who in short order restored the business of 
the Senate. He was an excellent presiding officer, used good English 
with little or no brogue [in a later letter Gen. Bussey corrected this 
to "accent"] and was a very pleasant gentleman with whom to be 
associated." 

— 101 — 



It is likely that they [the opposition — Aboli- 
tionists, et al] will return to Know Nothingism. This 
likelihood is confirmed by the efforts now making by 
Greeley and others to get up a union of the opposition, 
North and South, and by the steady encroachment of 
Massachusetts, Connecticut, and other Republican states, 
upon the rights of foreign-born residents of the United 
States, while their sympathies for the Negro made him 
seven times more estimable in Massachusetts than was 
the German, the one requiring only a year for citizenship , 
while the German was obliged to remain seven. Schade 
dwelt on this odious discrimination eloquently, and his 
remarks were warmly applauded. He quoted the stereo- 
tv'ped speech of ]\Ir. Rusch, showed that as a German 
scholar he should have too much modesty to attempt to 

fill the place of Lieutenant Governor His speech 

was a very satisfactory one We have no com- 
parisons to make between Mr. Rusch and Mr. Schade — 
neither of them pronounce English well, but it will be 
recollected that the latter is not a candidate for some 
of the most important offices within the gift of the peo- 
ple, and he expressly disclaims the propriety of such as- 
pirations on the part of any foreigner who has not yet 
acquired "the hang of our language.'' 

In his comments on men and measures Mr. Richardson 
was invariably courteous and fair and usually did those whom 
he criticised equity. He fails, however, to accord Mr. Rusch 
equity in full measure. Mr. Rusch's speech may have been 
the "stereotyped" speech with which he began his speaking 
tour at Verandah Hall, Keokuk : but if such was the case, it 
apparently was not a whit more subject to adverse comment 
in this respect than was the speech of Mr. Schade. The lat- 
ter thrummed the same strings and struck the same chords 
with which he opened the campaign in May. This is the 
practice of nine out of ten political speakers. It is the ex- 
ceptional man who can give much beyond the common stock 
arguments advanced by his partizan associates. 

Our conclusion as to the success of Mr. Rusch's speaking 
tour must rest upon somewhat general grounds. The various 
Republican editors whose favorable opinions have been cited 
were doubtless surcharged with partizan prejudice. They 

— 102 — 



saw grci.t virtue when the jiulicions perhajis would have per- 
ceived only medicxrrity and feeble effort. Yet several of those 
editors were usually cautious and conservative in statement 
and their strong words of laudation must have had some solid 
basis. There is not a little evidence to justify this conclusion. 

In the first place ATr. Rusch had previously demonstrated 
that he was a man of character and capacity and achievement 
in private life, owning one of the largest farms in Iowa which 
he conducted successfully witii the latest mechanical devices, 
that indicated energy, insight and foresight. His course in 
the State Senate had shown that he possessed solid character, 
had convictions and stood forth staunch in their support when 
men of small calibre and little character would have failed. 
His letter to Greeley's Tribune, which we have noticed was 
a vigorous document, closely reasoned and fairly stated. His 
letter to Kirkwood before the convention had determined the 
part lie was to have in the campaign indicated that he ap- 
preciated the considerations adverse to his nomination. Ear- 
nest convictions and patriotic purposes seem to have swayed 
him. 

Mr. Rusch was not an orator or an expositor such as was 
his distinguished compatriot, Carl Schurz. But there were 
few American speakers Avho could speak as forcibly and 
felicitously in English, as could Carl Schurz. In the various 
bits of evidence given us of the substance of Mr. Rusch's 
speeches we may discern pith and point. He was not 
original or extraordinary in his analysis of the problems in 
issue: but few political speakers are original or profound in 
the presentation of public issues. Every summary of any 
statement made by him in any of Ins speeches, the anecdotes 
and repartee reported all clearly demonstrate that he saw 
the basic considerations in debate, the central facts in the situ- 
ation and that l.e knew hr)w to drive home his points with 
homely illustrations.. 

XX. 

There is me fact in the can^.paign in Iowa in 18.^9 that 
arouses curiosity. The C^,ermans were so constantly in mind 

— 103 — 



in the plans of the party managers and in the arguments of 
the speakers of both parties that we should normally expect 
one or the other and, indeed, both parties, to make a special 
effort to import German notables from the older Eastern 
states to address the German voters. There was some effort 
by the Republicans in this direction, but with few results: due 
in some part, doubtless, to lack of funds. 

In its explanation of the non-appearance of Mr. Rusch 
on the stump in July and August, the Daily Gazette of Daven- 
port, as we have seen, informed the public that Mr. Rusch 
had been in correspondence with Mr. Carl Schurz of Mil- 
waukee and Judge J. B. Stallo of Cincinnati with a view to 
securing their services as speakers in the campaign in Iowa; 
and it was further announced that he had had favorable re- 
sponses. The announcement was greeted with all sorts of 
caustic and flippant comments by Democratic editors, one 
sample of which we have noticed. The announcement, never- 
theless, was realized to be big with importance, if the promises 
materialized, and General James Morgan, editor of The War 
Baglc, at Burlington, in a spirit of charity or caution felt 
constrained to tender Mr. Rusch some friendly advice in the 
way of a warning respecting the significance of Mr. Schurz's 
recent experiences with the Republicans. It was delivered, 
or administered under the generous caption : "The Way They 
Fool Them." 

* * * 

The fate of Mr. Shurtz [sic] in Wisconsin ought to 
be a warning to Mr. Rusch. 

Some two or three years ago Mr. Shurtz was the Re- 
publican nominee for Lieutenant Governor of Wisconsin. 
What was the result? The whole Republican ticket, save 
Shurtz, was elected ! He was defeated — how ? By Re- 
publicans refusing to vote for him ! 

We say to Mr. Rusch — we say to all Germans — that 
there is a natural and a cultivated rancor in the hearts 
of almost all Republicans against all foreigners, and that 
although willing and ready to practice any deception to 
avail themselves of the German vote, yet the great mass 
of them would at heart, prefer the defeat of the whole 
ticket, to the election of Rusch. Their hatred of for- 

— 104 — 



eigners is innate. — chronic — and Mr. Rusch — when it 
comes to counting the tickets, will lind that he has been 
scratched by liundred.s and thousands who will have other- 
wise voted the Republican ticket. Germans who have 
been decoyed into the Republican ranks and who may 
vote the ticket this time under the impression that the 
Republican leaders are sincere in their professions of 
fidelity to Mr. Rusch, will wake up, after the election to 
a realization of the fact, that it is the Negro and not the 
German, or any other foreigner, that the Republicans 
are fighting for.-" 
There were extensive and solid grounds for some of Gen. 
Morgan's slashing observations. As we .shall see later the 
Germans of Wisconsin were particularly restless just then on 
account of the treatment accorded their brilliant countryman 
by the Republicans of that state that seemed fully to warrant 
the harsh comments of The War Eagle. 

On September 21 Mr. G. H. Jerome, editor of The lozi'a 
City Republican informed his readers that he had the week 
before met in Chicago Mr. A. B. F. Hildreth, editor of The 
St. Charles Intelligencer and a member of the Republican 
State Central Committee of Iowa, who had assured him that 
"Senator Doolittle and the talented Charles Schurz, both of 
Wisconsin, had consented to canvass in behalf of the Republi- 
can cause, the northern portion of this state and the southern 
portion of Minnesota.'' For some reason the agreement was 
only partially fulfilled. Senator D(X)little spoke at St. Charles, 
and perhai)s at other points in Iowa. Mr. Schurz made a num- 
ber of speeches in Minnesota but apparently did not attempt 
to carry out the program for Iowa. I have seen no explanation 
of the non-appearance of Mr. Schurz in Iowa. 

judge Stallo, who gave Mr. Rusch a promise to give his 
aid in the camj^aign, in part formally, at least, fulfilled ex- 
pectations. He spoke in Davenport in Lohrmann's Hall on 
September 1.^ and 16: but his addresses were more in the 
nature of scholarly lectures rather than stirring partizan 
speeches. ^^ 

So far as I can discover no other Germans of note came 

*" Quoted in The Democratic Clarion, September 21, 1859. 
" Der Demokrat, September 16, 17, 1859. 

— 105 — 



into Iowa to promote the Republican cause. The Democrats 
apparently did not enlist any outside speal<ers and none par- 
ticipated in the canvass. 

XXI. 

We have seen how the Democratic press throughout the 
state and Democratic speakers systematically, generally and 
continuously throughout the campaign sought to alienate the 
German vote from the Republican party by constant reference 
to the "Two Year" Amendment and by persistent iteration of 
the gross discrimination between the rights and immunities 
of Negroes and Germans in Massachusetts. In the way of 
counteraction the Republicans dwelt no less constantly and 
emphatically upon the policies and procedure of the Demo- 
crats, particularly of the pro-slavery leaders of that party, 
which indicated prejudice respecting the Germans. 

The course of the party in power at Washington towards 
the Homestead bills and the adverse discriminations aflfecting 
tile foreign-bom in amendments thereto urged by Southern 
leaders ; the ruling of the Supreme Court in the case of Dred 
Scott wherein the status of aliens was placed on the same level 
with the Negro's status as regards the control of Congress ; 
the Cass-LeClerc letter proclaiming that our Government' 
could not and would not undertake to protect naturalized 
Germans against the adverse claims of their parent states for 
delinquent military duty, should they return to their father- 
land ; and the application of the rule in Dred Scott by such 
national Democratic organs as The States: — all these facts 
hurled back by the Repul)licans seemed almost completely to 
counterbalance the damage done by the "Two Year" Amend- 
ment in the single state of Massachusetts. The Republicans 
further dulled the edge of the "Two Year" Amendment by 
constantly hammering on Gen. Dodge's course in voting for 
the Fugitive Slave law and the Repeal of the Missouri Com- 
promise and they almost shrieked in hysterical exultation when 
at Oskaloosa he boldly declared his readiness to fulfill per- 
sonally the requirements of the law in the rendition of fugitive 
slaves. The candidacy of Nicholas J. Rusch worked power- 
fully in reaction against the tactics of the Democrats who 

— 106 — 



sought to bring the RepublicaRs into contempt for the passage 
of the "odious" Amendment and the success of his speeches m 
his canvass enhanced their specific refutation. 

It was consciousness of this fact that the Republicans 
were not only vigorously counteracting one of their major 
attacks but more than that were attacking and countermining 
their strongest position which made the Democrats rejoin with 
countervaiHng arguments. General Dodge himself felt the 
need of so doing, or his party managers and videttes so in- 
formed him: for late in August or in September there were 
printed portions of General Dodge's speech in the Senate at 
Washington, July 10. 1854, which were given extensive circu- 
lation among the electors. 

The Homestead bill pending in 1854 was under considera- 
tion in the Senate. The bill as it came from the House hmited 
the privileges under its provisions to "citizens" and to then 
resident aliens who had or would certify their "declaration of 
intention" to become citizens. Senator Wade of Ohio had 
sought bv amendment to enlarge its provisions to include all 
prospecti've immigrants coming to our shores after the date 
of the enactment of the bill into law. but he withdrew his 
amendment because it endangered the passage of the bill. 
Senator Clavton of Delaware, before Senator Wade's amend- 
ment was withdrawn, proposed an amendment striking out 
a portion of section six of the bill and substituting Uierefor 
a section confining its benefits wholly to "citizens" of the 
United States. There was lively sparring for position by 
friends and opponents of the bill. In the midst of it Senator 
Dodge of Iowa arose and delivered one of the most vigorous 
and impassioned speeches of his Senatorial career. The treat- 
ment accorded the pending bill and similar bills in the past 
he denounced as "worse" than had been accorded "any measure 
that emanated from a majority of the people's representatives." 
He then paid his respects to Senator Thompson of Kentucky 
who on April 19 preceding when the pending bill was first 
under consideration, had not only opposed the passage of the 
bill but took occasion to heap contempt and ridicule noon the 
foreign-born and the Germans in particular: Senator Thomp- 

— 107 — 



son saying among other things that the foreigners coming to 
us were the "offscourings of Europe" and that it would take 
"three generations" to "lick into the shape of an American 
gentleman" the ordinary German. After various Senators, — 
Broadhead, Clayton, Clay, Dixon, Pettit, Shields and Walker 
— had tilted and broken a few lances, Senator Dodge said 
(July 10) : 

Mr. President, I should like to know of the Senator 
from Delaware [Mr. Clayton] or any of those who co- 
operate with him, when, and upon what occasion, this 
much-abused foreign population has shown any disloyalty 
to the institutions of this country? When, and where, 
have they ever raised the standard of rebellion against 
its Constitution or its laws? At no time or place, do I 
believe they have ever done either ; nor I have the most 
distant idead that they contemplated any of these things. 
I remember that my friend from Mississippi [Mr. Adams] 
during the last Winter alluded to some ebullition of feel- 
ing on the part of some of the German population, I think 
of Cincinnati, which I myself regretted and which I at- 
tributed to others — to native-born citizens, Abolitionists — 
such as those of the Old Bay State, and others who were 
so much disposed on a recent occasion to give way to 
mob violence. I repeat my solemn belief that there are 
no more loyal and patriotic people than those foreigners 
who have found their way to Iowa, Wisconsin and other 
Western states. When the Senator from Kentucky [Mr. 
Thompson] was ridiculing the persons and bodily forma- 
tion of these men who happened to be born on the op- 
posite side of the ocean, I think, if the scenes of the 
American revolution could have been brought fresh to his 
memory, if he could have contemplated the Irish for- 
eigner, Montgomery in his winding sheet, — one of the 
first to strike and fall in the cause of our then struggling 
and feeble country ; had he remembered the services of 
Pulaski, Kosciuski, De Kalb. and LaFayette, and that 
host of other noble spirits who flocked around our revo- 
lutionary standard, and shed their blood upon almost 
every battlefield, from Massachusetts to Georgia, he could 
not have found it in his heart to oppose, denounce, and 
ridicule their countrymen in the manner he did. The 
person of Baron Steuben may not have been such in all 
particulars as would command the admiration of the Sen- 
ator from Kentucky, but it was one that faced the front 
— 108 — 



of the war — one from whom the father of his country 
was wilhng to receive that instruction in mihtary tactics 
which his early and imperfect education had not given 
him an opportunity to acquire. 

I know much of these people. I speak from my knowl- 
edge of the great body of them when I say before God 
and the Senate that 1 believe that they are as true, as 
loyal, as devoted to the institutions of the country as any 
native citizens, and are among the most ready to take up 
arms in its defense. Look at your Adjutant General's 
reports, compare the places of nativity of the soldiers who 
enlisted in our army during all the wars from that of the 
Revolution down to the recent war with Mexico, and you 
will find that a very large proportion of them were for- 
eigners. I have lived in a section of the country in which 
it has been necessary at times to call for volunteers to re- 
pel Indian hostility, and have never found these people, 
whether they had gone through the forms of naturaliza- 
tion or not, backward in rallying in defense of the country 
of their choice and that too without hope of reward or 
emolument. 

The sincerity of Senator Dodge's sentiments will not be 
seriously questioned by anyone familiar with his sturdy char- 
acter and his steadiness as a statesman and as a man under 
all sorts of adverse influences. The cynical, however, may be 
inclined to suspect, as his partizan opponents no doubt did in 
1854. that his ardent defense of the foreign born was due in no 
small measure to the tremendous drubbing he was then re- 
ceiving on the hustings in Iowa at the hands of Mr. James 
W. Grimes, the Whig or Opposition candidate for Governor 
of Iowa because of his. Senator Dodge's, alleged failure to 
resent and repel! an attack upon the character of the Germans 
of Iowa which had occurred in the same Senate a few months 
before. The nature of the attack upon him then in progress 
in Iowa we shall consider later. 

Here it suffices to assert that Senator Dodge was in no 
sense a seeker after "popularity" ; he did not turn or shift with 
the variable winds of public discussion. The attacks of his 
partizan critics at home may have been the occasion of the 
expression of his views, or rather the substantial reason for 
the energy of his expression. But the sentiments and views 

— 109 — 



he then and there expressed were not the fitful or flighty 
opinions of a time-serving poHtician, uneasy from watching 
the weather signals, but the solid convictions of a statesman 
who always stood four square with his constituents. Nor 
need we doubt at all that they were substantially the views 
held by Senator Dodge in 1859. 

Mr. Wm. Porter gave the speech of July 10, 1854, ex- 
tensive circulation through the columns of the Campaign State 
Journal. The Republicans, it is almost needless to observe did 
not reprint any portion of Senator Dodge's speech, and they 
did not retract any of the assertions boldly alleging his hos- 
tility towards the foreign-born. On the contrary the publica- 
tion of his views as expressed in 1854 aroused the memories 
as well as the animosity of the Republicans and they renewed 
their attack upon Senator Dodge in respect of the Germans 
with greatly enhanced energy, as we shall soon see. 

XXII. 

In sundry additional ways the Democrats endeavored to 
counteract the specifications in the indictment presented by the 
Republicans charging them with anti-foreign prejudice and 
hostile action in national legislation and administration. Thus 
they dwelt with fervor upon what they denounced to be a 
narrow construction of the law of Iowa exempting "home- 
steads" from execution of judgments for debt rendered in 1857 
in the case of Rhodes, Pegram & Co. v. McCormick [IV Iowa 
p. 368]. Therein the court held that a man's "house" or 
"home" could not be construed to be the entire building or 
structure in which a person might be living; but the term 
necessarily referred to the room or rooms actually in good 
faith used as a home and not the upper or lower rooms or 
stories or collateral apartments. 

The Dubuque Daily Herald professed to be greatly in- 
censed at what it declared was not only a narrow and un- 
warranted construction of the law, but a manifest perversion 
by the Republican Supreme Court of the purpose of the law. 
On September 17 taking notice of some claims of The Hawkeye 
respecting the Homestead bill Mr. Dorr reminded Republi- 

— 110 — 



cans that the first Homestead bills had been introduced by 
Democrats ; that it was a Democratic legislature that gave the 
people of Iowa their first law exempting Homesteads from 
execution ; and that it was a "'Republican Supreme Court'' 
that had ''knocked that law in the head." Mr. Dorr then 
italicizes a sentence characterizing the court's ruling that il- 
lustrates not a little of the direct appeal to Demos in that 
campaign, namely: "And decided that a widoxt.' xcith si.v chil- 
dren can be forced to take her homestead in the garret, while 
the loii'er stories and the hind upon which the house is situated, 
may he sold to satisfy a remorseless creditor." Mr. Dorr 
indulged in crass senlimentalism, if not gross demagogism : 
but the design to allure Germans and working people to the 
Democratic party and to overcome the loud claims of the 
Republicans to superior virtue in promoting the welfare of the 
masses is obvious. 

The Democrats renewed their attacks upon the Republi- 
cans in reference to the control of the liquor traffic. In the 
joint discussions between IMessrs. Rusch and Schade, Mr. 
Schade had steadily dwelt upon what he pronounced the puri- 
tanical and fanatical course of the Republicans in relation 
to the "Maine Law" and during September there was a special 
effort made to convict the Republicans of hypocritical pre- 
tenses, with the design, of course, of alienating the Germans 
from the Republican standards. We have already noted the 
charges made respecting Senator Harlan at Oskaloosa in the 
debate between Mr. Rusch and Mr. Schade. On September 
4 The Dubuque Daily Herald gave added publicity, as al- 
ready pointed out, to current charges by Democrats that Sen- 
ator Jas. W. Grimes was the owner of a Beer Garden in 
Burlington and enjoyed substantial financial profits from his 
proprietorship in a business that he was denouncing on the 
stump for political revenue. Mr .Dorr then refers to sundry 
prominent Republican leaders notoriously addicted to bibulous 

habits and boldly asserts: " the Bogus Republican 

leaders are great guzzlers of lager beer, and if the truth were 

known, all subject to indictment " The "entire his- 

tiry" of the Republican party" in this state has been a cheat 

— Ill — 



and mockery, a continual series of hollow pretenses and frauds 
upon the public." 

Mr. Rusch was announced to speak in Dubuque Tuesday, 
September 20, and with a view, we may presume, to counter- 
acting his appeal to his fellow Germans, Mr. Dorr penned 
[Sept. 18] a long leader under the caption: "German Re- 
publicans in Wisconsin and Iowa." Therein he declares that 
the Germans of the sister state across the river have discovered 
"the hollow-heartedness and the lack of principle" of the Re- 
publican party, but he observes that their discovery has been 
duplicated in the experience of the Germans of Massachusetts, 
New York and Iowa where the Republicans had constantly 
fused with the Know Nothings. He then touches upon the 
"Two Year" Amendment, the attempts to enact "Registry 
Laws" in New York and Iowa and the defeat of Carl Schurz 
in the Republican State Convention of Wisconsin in his candi- 
dacy for Governor a few months before. 

Mr. Dorr thereupon dwells with much unction upon the 
"contemptuous" refusal of the Republicans "across the river" 
to nominate Mr. Schurz and in face of such refusal their 
nomination of Mr. Randall "a leading Know Nothing." Then 
follows a letter addressed to the Daily Wisconsin by a "Ger- 
man Republican" dealing with the substantial complaints of 
the disaffected Germans of Wisconsin because of the treat- 
ment accorded them by the Republicans of that state. Then 
follows an extract from the Milwaukee News summarizing 
an article of Carl Roeser's paper the Manitowoc Demokrat 
which declared that "the defeat of Schurz is considered by 
the entire German population as the Massachusetts Amend- 
ment No. 2." Then follows specific charges that all of the 
Republican candidates for state offices in Iowa were then or 
had but recently been avowed Know Nothings — all save Mr. 
Rusch. Furthermore, the Republicans had pursued the same 
tactics in county and local conventions. But was not all this 
part and parcel of the Republican program ? "... did they 
not attempt to enact a most infamous Registry law, by which 
foreign born citizens were not to be allowed their oaths. . . ?" 

Mr. Dorr concludes his article with a generous extract 
— 112 — 



from a letter of Hon. C. L. Clausen, "a very talented and 
upright gentleman, a Norwegian, living at St. Ansgar, Mitchell 
county. He was a member of the Legislature two years ago, 
and is one of the finest and purest minded men in the State.'' 
Mr. Clausen was a Republican ; but wliile he was such he 
was not indifferent to the conduct of his party in matters 
vitally aiTecting the foreign-born. The Republicans of Mitchell 
county had nominated for the State Legislature a candidate 
who was openly charged with being, or with having been, a 
Know-Nothing. and Mr. Clausen had demanded on the floor 
of the convention that the nominee clear himself of the charge 
so seriously made; because he, Mr. Clausen, could not support 
a man tainted with Know Nothingism. Later Mr. Clausen 
addressed a letter to his local partizans from which Mr. Dorr 
quoted as follows : 

I do by no means charge the Republican party 

with the late doings in the Massachusetts Constitutional 
Convention, in regard to the naturalization of foreigners; 
nor with the strenuous efiforts made by the N. Y. Tribune 
and others for a union and a fusion with the remnants 
of the Know Notliing j^arty. But it is undoubtedly true, 
that strong efforts are made by not a few influential men 
and journals, claiming to be Republicans — and even by 
some, considered as leaders towards a fusion with the 
Know Nothings, even at the expense of having a Know 
Nothing for our next President. I certainly hope that 
these efiforts will prove as utterly abortive, as they are 
evidently dishonest ; but to make them fail it is necessary 
that Republicans in all sections of the country should show 
clean hands, and purge themselves from all connection 
with those Know Nothing movements. You cannot ex- 
pect us as citizens of foreign birth to be willing to put 
the knife to the throats of our rights and liberties, or 
that of our friends and relatives who may hereafter 
[come] to this country by voting men into office who 
might be expected to use their power to deprive our dear- 
est friends, of what we ourselves hold dear as our lives ! 

Mr. Dorr closes his editorial thus: "Have the Republican 
Germans or other foreign-born citizens who have acted with 
the Republican party in Towa, less independence than their 

— 113 — 



countrymen in Wisconsin ? Will they bow meekly to the rod 
which is laid upon them?" 

Three days later !Mr. l^orr delivered another tremendous 
broadside addressed to "The ]\epublican Germans of Iowa," 
dealing with great particularity with the men and their meas- 
ures in the attempt to pass the "infamovis Registry law" in 
the General Assembly of Iowa in 1858. the de-^ign of the leader 
beirg to revive the bitter animosities of that legislative session 
and reinvigorate the resentment of the foreign-born against 
what he contended was the prejudicial legislation of the Re- 
publicans controlled, as he stoutly asseverated, by the leaders 
of the Know Xothir.gs. The article h.as already l)een adverted 
to. On September 23. Mr. Dorr paid his respects to Mr. Rusch 
as we h''.ve already noticed. 

XXIII. 

The political campaign in Iowa in 1859 was nearing its 
culmination. The clash of state or local and national interests 
and the rivalries of candidates had engendered a contest that 
was intense, bitter and closely drawn. The heralds and pro- 
tagonists of both parties apparently were equally confident of 
success ; at least they were severally equally aggressive and 
assertive. 

It would have been difficult for the most experienced par- 
tizans accurately to have forecasted on September 30 the 
actual result on October 11. Latter-day historians, knowing 
the returns have, I suspect, suffered from ex post facto ob- 
viousness and presumed that the auguries and horoscopes 
clearly foretold the success of the Republican or Anti-Slavery 
party. Such assertions or assumptions, however, are gratui- 
tous and without substantial warrant ; as a slight analysis of 
the returns of the election will demonstrate. 

It is evident from the earnest, energetic and systematic 
efforts of the Republican v^tate Central Committee that the 
Republican leaders were seriously disturbed by the adverse 
conditions and prospects confronting them. Mr. John A. 
Kasson, Chairman, made several circular appeals to the party 
workers in various sections of the state, urging cessation of 

— 114 — 



local factional fights and concentration in common action to 
overcome the concert of action of the Democrats ; and he issued 
several "Addresses'' to the voters, dealing at great length and 
in great detail with numerous serious charges made by Dem- 
ocrats against the State's administration under the control, since 
1854, of the Republican party. Mr. Kasson's energy in de- 
fense of the Republican party was ipso facto public ack- 
nowledgment of the vigor and eflfect of the assaults of the 
Democrats and the great urgency of the party's need for 
counteraction in offensive measures if success was again to 
perch upon the Republican standards. 

This anxiety is exhibited in a letter of Senator Grimes to 
Kirkwood dated at Burlington, Septeml>er 14. After assert- 
ing his preparedness to meet Mr. Kirkwood and engage in a 
joint speaking canvass with him Senator Grimes urges him to 
write "immediately" to a prominent ])arty worker at Des 
Moines to support the party's nominee for the House of Rep- 
resentatives, evidently suspecting danger. He expresses con- 
fidence in the success of the state ticket ; but he thereupon 
adds: "I am a little fearful about the House of Representa- 
tives. I hear there is trouble in Clinton county. I have writ- 
ten to those who I suppose can do some good to go to work." 

At this juncture, with the signs uncertain, if not oDviously 
unfavorable to Republican success, when the leaders realized 
that the crisis of the campaign was at hand and the exigency 
called for the use of their heaviest ordinance Mr. Clark 
Dunham, editor of The Haii'keye, delivered a broadside that 
awakened the echoes of the epoch-making campaign of 1854 
when the Democrats to their amazement and to the nation's 
astonishment were driven from the places of power in the 
"First Free State of the Louisiana Purchase." 

The broadside was delivered on the morning of September 
28. under the inoffensive title : "A Word with the Germans." 
Therein Mr. Dunham recites that on the 24th of February, 
1854, Senator A. P. Butler of South Carolina in the course 
of a speech upon the Kansas-Nebraska bill repelling in par- 
ticular some harsh observations of Senators Chase and Sumner, 
allowed himself to say: 

— 115 — 



"Why, Sir, the slaveholder, with his sla>ves well 
governed, forms a relation innocent enough, and use- 
ful enough. I believe it is a population which Iowa 
tomorrozv would prefer to an inundation of those men 
coming as emigrants from a foreign country, wholly 
unacquainted with the institutions of this country — 
and nearly all continental comers are of this class." 
The Hawkeye reproduced the expression of the dis- 
tingushed Senator from South Carolina in italics and followed 
it with the comment in italics: 

"The record does not show that the Senators from 
Iowa [Messrs. Dodge and Jones] ever uttered a zvord 
in condemnation or rebuke of this sentiment of Senator 
Butler." 

Mr. Dunham then relates that Mr. James W. Grimes on 
April 8 published an Address "To The People of Iowa," 
wherein he directed public attention to Senator Butler's striking 
observation. Mr. Grimes paraphrased the actual language of 
the South CaroHnian, making him say that "Iowa would be 
more prosperous with the institution of slavery than with her 
industrious and patriotic German population." 

Mr. Grimes' Address produced such a tremendous effect in 
Iowa that Senators Dodge and Jones realized at once that 
energetic measures were instantly necessary in rejoinder. They 
jointly addressed a letter [Washington, April 22] to Senator 
Butler, making a specific inquiry as to the truth of the allega- 
tion of Mr. Grimes. Judge Butler responded April 24, writing 
from his Committee Room in the Senate. He denied having 
ever uttered such a remark as Mr. Grimes charged. Further 
he rejoined that February 25 he had stated explicity in the 
Senate that his observation of the preceding day was "a 
playful remark" and had been misinterpreted to reflect upon 
the "Germans coming from Bremen and other ports of 
Northern Germany" when he did not so intend and therewith 
denied so insinuating. He then reiterated in substance the 
suggestion or comparison that first aroused adverse comment. 
Senator Butler then frankly asserts that an educated and 
patriotic slaveholder would prove just as desirable a citizen, 

— 116 — 



[and he thought a more desirable citizen] and "neig-hbor as 
a newly arrived foreigner from Germany." He charged Mr. 
Grimes with lack of candor and fair dealing in misquoting him. 
The tremendous effect of Mr. Grimes' Address to the People 
of Iowa may be inferred from the fact that The Thunderer 
of the Peirce Administration, The Washington Union, re- 
printed the correspondence between Iowa's Senators and Judge 
Butler together with letters from Senators Dawson and Toombs 
of Georgia denying other allegations made by Mr. Grimes in 
a three-column leader denouncing the tactics of "the Whig 
candidate for Governor of Iowa." This pronunciamento of 
the High Contracting Powers at Washington was published 
at length in the leading Democratic papers in Iowa. Mr. 
Grimes had not expected to engage in a personal canvass, 
private business affairs compelling him to visit New Hampshire. 
While there he read the broadside in The Union. He cut 
short his private transactions and returned to Iowa. He issued 
a powerful rejoinder to the The Union's charges ; and entered 
upon his single-handed canvass that carried him into the 
Governor's chair. 

The Hazvkeye exhibits Senator Butler's letter in extenso 
and descants with vaulting scorn upon his denial. It was 
nothing short of a "confession and avoidance" as lawyers 
would put it. Mr. Grimes had charged him with uttering an 
invidious remark nbout the preferences of lowans for Slave- 
holders and their slaves over Germans. He rejoined with what 
purported to be a flat denial which avowedly admitted the 
substantial assertion first made by Mr. Grimes. To all intents 
and purposes he had so said : and he could not get from under 
by describing his observation as a "playful remark." 

The single and obvious purpose of The Haivkeye in thus 
recalling the campaign of 1854 was manifest. Senator Butler 
had made his remark which seemed patently invidious as re- 
spects the Germans as the chief continental emigrants to this 
country, in the open Senate during the discussion of the most 
momentous question of that decade. He made the observation 
in the presence, presumably, of the two Senators from Iowa, 
Messrs. Dodge and Jones. Neither then, nor in subsequent 

— 117 — 



days before the Kansas-Nebraska bill passed the Senate, did 
either Senator from Iowa take exception to the comment of the 
Senator from South Carolina. The editorial closes with the 
following in italics : 

"And this same General Dodge, who silently and 
acquiescently heard these sentiments uttered in the 
United States Senate, and spread them broadcast over 
the state in Mr. Butler's letter to him and his colleague 
of April 24th, 1854, now asks German citizens to 
make him Governor of loza^a. 
The broadside calls for sundry comments, however we may 
regard it. 

The episode referred to and the use made thereof by Mr. 
Grimes in 1854 constituted a major, if not the paramount fact 
in the maneuvres of Mr. Grimes in the crucial campaign waged 
by him against the Democratic party in 1854. His appeal to 
the Germans in that canvass was his grand maneuvre in the 
campaign and was one of the two decisive facts, — the Repeal 
of the Missouri Compromise being the other fact — determin- 
ing election in 1854. 

The significance of Senator Butler's original remark in the 
Senate and the justice of his protest against the use made of 
it by Mr. Grimes is too considerable a complex of pros and 
cons for presentation here. I shall deal with it in an in- 
dependent narrative. As the game of politics is ordinarily 
played, Mr. Grimes had Gen. Dodge at a sharp disadvantage. 
Although in truth and in substance Senator Butler did not 
intend to make an invidious suggestion, and explicitly denied 
so intending, he seemed superficially to have clearly done so. 
To the uncritical and heedless and hasty — and the electors in 
the vast majority follow their first impressions and delay 
decision but little in order to take a sober second thought and 
scrutinize carefully what was actually said and what precisely 
was meant and whether the assertion was substantially sound 
or implied serious hostility. — Senator Butler indulged in 
class presumption and racial prejudice and diverged from the 
strait course that a statesman should constantly and scrupu- 
lously pursue. His denial seemed dubious, shifty, technical, 

— 118 — 



a shrewd play upon words. Mad the tables been turned we 
may suspect that Mr. Grimes would have protested as^ainst 
the use made of such a remark as the opposition in 1854 and 
the Republicans in 1859 made of such a casual observation. 

The Hawkeye shrewdly timed its editorial and shrewdly 
presented it. The election was only two weeks away. The 
great majority of the Republican papers were weeklies and for 
the most part would reprint or summarize its contents within 
the week just preceding the election. The Democratic papers 
would not have time to make an effective rejoinder. So far 
as I have been able to discover none of the Democratic papers 
made anv reply, although the article of The Hawkeye was 
widely reprinted. 

It is not an extravagant surmise that the editorial was first 
suggested by Senator James W. Grimes. Indeed there is much 
in the style of the article to make one suspect that Senator 
Grimes was himself the author. He was a resident of Bur- 
lington and was in his home city during most of the summer. 
He was in frequent personal conference with Mr. Dunham, 
the editor. Indeed, if we may accredit current assumption 
among the Democrats Senator Grimes was one of the owniers 
of The Hazvkeye. 

The editorial. I have said, was shrewdly presented ; but it 
was not candidly presented. It gives Senator Butler's original 
remark and his letter to Senator Dodge. It then points scorn- 
fully to the silence of the two Senators from Iowa. It does 
not suggest that Senator Butler's explanation on February 25 
explicitly excluding the Germans from his meaning was 
probably suggested to him by the Senators from Iowa, who 
no doubt recognized that the remark might be talccn as animad- 
version and cause them trouble. It ignores the fact that his 
explanation and caveat relieved them from any iinmediate or 
urgent duty to protest his observation. It does not suggest 
that the Senators from Iowa were under no constitutional, or 
political or personal obligation to take notice of and repel any 
and all casual or incidental remarks that some Senator might 
now and then accidentally or deliberately make that might be 
excepted to by critical or hypersensitive people among his con- 

— 119 — 



stitiients. Finally the editorial, had its author designed to be 
candid and fair, would have pointed out that the animadver- 
sions of Senator Thompson of Kentucky upon the foreign-born 
drew from Senator Dodge a stern rebuke, unequivocal and 
vigorous. Senator Grimes and Senator Harlan could not and 
would not have spoken in stronger terms of defense and lauda- 
tion of the characters and conduct of the Germans in Iowa 
than did Senator Dodge on the 10th of July, 1854. 

But partizans are seldom scrupulously fair ; and perhaps it 
is Utopian to expect them to be. In the clash of politics 
vision is blurred by the confusion of interests and the collision 
of motives. Prejudice and passion make almost impossible 
clear sight and clear thinking ; and without both full knowledge 
and sound logic real courtesy and complete equity are not 
likely. 

As the game of politics is ordinarily played the article of 
The Haiokeye was a masterly stroke. The Democrats, ap- 
parently as it seems to me, were gaining upon their opponents. 
The Republicans manifestly acted as if they were and there 
was substantial reason for so thinking. The direct appeals of 
Democrats to Germans were just then particularly pointed and 
frequent. A vigorous thrust that could not be parried or 
avoided was needed. The Dodge-Butler correspondence met 
their requirements exactly. Explain it as they would Germans 
and Negroes seemed to be classed together. At the least and 
at the best Germans were deemed not as desirable as slave- 
holders and their slaves well governed as a population for Iowa. 
Senator Butler's letter of explanation was a mere "confession 
and avoidance'" and mere insistence. The Gods themselves 
could hardly persuade a lusty son of Germania to admit the 
truth of the assertion of the Senator from South Carolina and 
they certainly could not expect to win many votes from 
Germans by telling them that they were not so desirable as 
citizens as the slaves or their owners. Senator Butler's letter, 
sent broadcast throughout Iowa by Senator Dodge and the 
Democratic press in 1854 was a decidedly awkward document 
to deal with. It did almost as much damage at the breach 
as it did at the muzzle ; and the writer of the article in The 

— 120 — 



Hazvkcye clearly discerned this effect. What benefit or boot 
could the Democrats expect to obtain in denouncing the "Two 
Year" Amendment and the degradation of the Germans in 
Massachusetts below the level of the Negro when the distin- 
guished Senator from South Carolina avowed openly that he 
deemed Slaveholders and their slaves a population preferable 
to one composed of foreign-born, hailing from the continent 
of Europe. Did not his frank avowal confirm all that the 
Republicans had so stoutly and persistently maintained as to 
the bearing of the ruling of the Supreme Court in the case of 
Dred Scott, and its then recent application or illustration in 
the Cass-LeClerc letter. 

XXIV. 

Democratic editors, so far as I have been able to discover, 
made no direct rejoinder to The Hazvk eye's broadside. 
Whether the fact was due to inability from lack of knowledge 
of the facts or from lack of time to assemble the facts from 
the record so as to counter it successfully or to indifference 
to its delivery, it is perhaps idle to speculate. Silence may 
have been deemed the better part of wisdom. . 

During the middle days of September, however. The 
Dubuque Herald sought to arouse the Germans in an- 
tagonism to the Republican program and candidates ; and it 
did so in an energetic and systematic fashion as we have noted. 
On October 2. Mr. Dorr published an interesting and sug- 
gestive article under the title : "The German Republicans 
Bidding Good Bye to the Republican Party." Whether Mr. 
Dorr had in mind the article in The Hawkeye is not indicated 
but it constituted a substantial counterblast. 

The writer begins by asserting that Iowa is "the only State 
where the German Republicans still stick to the Black Repub- 
lican party." In New York, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, 
Wisconsin, Missouri "and other states leading German Re- 
publican papers openly denounce that party, warning their 
friends not to trust those hypocritical Know Nothing freedom- 
shriekers." The Crimitial Zcitun^ and the Dcmokrat, both of 
New York City, Der Pionier of Boston, Westliche Post of St. 

— 121 — 



Louis, "all leading German Republican papers, are now at 
war with the Republican party. Almost every German paper 
in Wisconsin, which has defended Republicanism for the last 
three years, is now opposed to the Republican nominations of 
that State. A general stampede has taken place amongst those 
warm supporters of the Republican cause. And will our 
German Republicans in this state never open their eyes ? * * * 
Let them read the following article, which is translated from a 
German Republican paper, (the New York Demokrat) and 
let them bear in mind that the same causes, which induced their 
friends to leave the Republican party, are also operating in 
Iowa." 

The Schurz affair in Wisconsin must have convinced 
even the most stupid German Republican what we have to 
expect from the American Republicans. 

Have the German Republicans, for all their attachment, 
sacrifice, enthusiasm and unselfishness to the Republican 
party, with which they united at an ill-timed hour, not yet 
received kicks enough ? What are they waiting for yet ? 

In the West they give us (Eastern Germans) as excuse: 
"Against us Germans of the Western States no attacks 
can be made: We are in safety." 

The devil you are in safety ? Know Nothingism you call 
a phantom. With good German honesty you do not see 
the Devil until he has taken you at your coat tail and 
shakes you that your eyes are running over. The writer 
of this lives himself in the W^est, but his eyes are open 
and he knows that Know Nothingism, which childish people 
declare to be a scare crow is an conicsf reality — is a dan- 
ger — yes, a danger. 

And if you have submitted to all the other outrages — 
have with Christian spirit accepted thankfully all the 
kicks — has not the Schurz aiTair opened your eyes, which 
has occurred in the heart of the West, in a half German 
State, and which is directed against a man, who has un- 
derstood better than any others, to make himself familiar 
with American politics. 

And yet he has received a blow into his face from his 
"noble friends and party associates," because he is a 
German — this blow is directed against every one of us 
Germans. 

Do you not feel, infatuated Germans, the seal of infamy, 
which burns upon your cheeks? 

— 122 — 



You will not consent to have a German organization. 
Let us then have at least a demonstration. 

Will not the larger German Republican papers lift the 
veil which now conceals stupidity, cowardice and infamous 
speculation which cheats, stultifies and sells hundreds and 
thousands of German votes? 

Yes, that is the short and the long of the whole affair! 
Why should we not speak right out? It is not stupidity 
which induces the German Republican wire-pullers to go 
with the Republican party, but it is common, dirty specula- 
tion. They have their position, and they desire to make 
something out of it, it is "material aid" they are after — 
the German Republican masses may get the Devil! That 
it the truth. Will no larger German Republican papers 
pitch into those fellows unanimously, who think that they 
have the German Repviblicans in their pocket, and can sell 
them whenever they please? Those men, who talk con- 
stantly of corruption and slavery, of the miserable position 
of the Germans and the Democratic party, etc., etc., yet 
sell in cold blood their followers to a party which — as 
young as it is — exceeds by far, in regard to rascally cor- 
ruption, the old party, which, if once in power, will make 
the "tyranny," of which there is so much talk now, a bitter, 
a very bitter reality? 

Will no larger German Republican paper that is in the 
hands of honest men lift its voice and tell the truth f 

But even that will not be done. We see clearly which 
will be the consequences. Those German Republicans 
who have marrow in their bones and do not intend to give 
up their rights, will have no other choice but to vote the 
Democratic ticket. 

Mr. Dorr's anxiety and zeal impelled him to leap to con- 
clusions that his facts did not justify. The editors of the 
German papers mentioned, particularly Mr. Karl Heinzen of 
Boston and Mr. William Kopp of New York, after the passage 
of the 'Two Year" Amendment in Massachusetts had been in 
a state of violent discontent with the Republican party. They 
had proclaimed revolt and had urged it incessantly in one form 
and another. The numerous acts of the Republican leaders 
who joined in their protests again.st the principle and against 
the passage of the act of Massachusetts, in New York, Mich- 
igan, Ohio, Wisconsin. Illinois and Iowa; the solemn resolu- 
tions of numerous mass meetings and conventions local and 

— 123 — 



state, whereby the Republicans, as partizans, formally and 
officially deplored and denounced the "Two Year" Amendment 
did not placate those stiff-backed radicals. That Amendment 
was a cardinal offense that could be neither pardoned nor 
tolerated ; and the party that could and would sanction it was 
not to be trusted. 

Mr. Dorr overlooked or ignored the fact that all of the 
German papers named, then urging the Germans to oppose 
the Republican party, had not succeeded in realizing any of 
the radical suggestions made by them. The Independent party 
proposed had not materialized. The convention at Cleveland 
had been unable to effect an organization ; and most of the 
influential German leaders among the Republicans e. g. 
Kapp and Koerner, Olshausen and Rusch, Schurz and Stallo, 
had counselled against any third party movement. Even 
Friederich Hassaureck who had urged that German Repub- 
licans refuse to co-operate with Republicans unless they 
specifically denounced the "Two Year" Amendment in their 
state platforms that year was satisfied with the unequivocal 
expressions of the party platforms in Ohio and Iowa. Despite 
the persistent efforts of the editors of the papers mentioned 
by Mr. Dorr the agitation for an independent movement which 
seemed to be making headway during April and May collapsed 
in June. 

But while Mr. Dorr allowed his desires to magnify and 
expand unduly his inferences from a few facts, he was correct 
in asserting the existence of a widespread and sullen and stub- 
born discontent among the rank and file and among the 
leadership of the German Republicans of the majority of the 
Middle and Western states. The article which he reprints 
from the New York Demokrat illustrates much of the argument 
and appeal made to the discontented German Republicans. The 
philosophical and academic will doubtless pronounce the 
sentiments were partizan sentimentality, if not cheap claptrap 
appealing to factional prejudice ; but any one familiar with the 
highways and byways of practical politics knows well that the 
expressions of the Demokrat give us typical exhibits of the 
by-play and counterplay of practical party workers interested 

— 124 — 



only in the give-and-take of politics and the rewards of party 
allegiance and service. 

On the opposite side of the State at Sioux City, Mr. F. M. 
Zieback was addressing similar arguments to the electors of 
Woodbury County in the closing days of the campaign. On 
September 29, under the caption "How Republicans Treat 
Germans," he enlarged upon the treatment given Carl Schurz 
in Wisconsin. The Register took its cue from the Chicago 
Times, wherein the political situation in that State was dealt 
with at great length and the vials of its scorn poured upon the 
Republicans for what the Times declared to be their insincerity 
in their treatment of Mr. Schurz. Notwithstanding his bril- 
liant abilities and notable services for the Republican cause 
Mr. Schurz was defeated by Know Nothing or "American" 
votes when he was a candidate for Lieutenant Governor in 
1857. In 1859 he was again pushed by his German compatriots 
for the Republican nomination for Governor, in large measure, 
we may presume, to enforce the "recognition" they deemed 
their due and to obtain satisfaction for his defeat in 1857. 
As the Republicans of Wisconsin discovered that year the 
situation after Mr. Schurz's defeat in 1859 was not easily ex- 
plained to the satisfaction of the Germans of that state. Ex- 
patiating upon it in Iowa would aggravate the discontent of 
Germans west of the river. 

In another column in another editorial Mr. Zieback again 
enlarges upon the situation in Wisconsin, declaring that the 
Republican party in that state was "hopelessly disrupted" be- 
cause of the discontent of the Germans over the treatment 
accorded them in the recent state convention and the course 
of the "American" candidate for Governor, Mr. Randall. 
How seriously the Germans were kept in mind in that then 
far-off city on the Missouri river it is only necessary to add 
that in the same issue of The Register Mr. Ziebach reprinted 
another article, giving an account of the stormy meeting be- 
tween Messrs. Rusch and Schade at Verandah Hall, Keokuk, 
already described herein. The efforts of Mr. Rusch were ac- 
corded scant courtesy and those of Mr. Schade were lauded in 
generous terms. The article closes with an appeal to German 

— 125 — 



pride to assert itself and to abandon the party whose leaders 
are "sworn Know Nothings" and who are using them "to 
establish a power that will turn and crush them, when it has 
gained the strength. Look all over the country, and in most 
every Northern state the Republican and Know Nothing parties 
are acting in unison." 

The constant consideration given the German vote in the 
political campaign of 1859 is forcibly illustrated in the last 
issue of The Sioux City Register (Oct. 6) just before the 
election which occurred on October 11. On his first page Mr. 
Ziebach reprinted Mr. Will Porter's pithy editorial entitled, 
"That Amendment" in which "that infamous prescriptive prop- 
osition" of Massachusetts is reproduced in heavy-faced type 
and the degradation of the German below the "runaway negro" 
is enlarged upon. In the same column is reprinted Mr. Dorr's 
editorial upon the "The Homestead Bill," in which he charges 
"the Republican supreme court" with emasculating the law 
exempting homesteads from execution. On the next page 
Mr. Ziebach has a vigorous editorial on "The Homestead Bill," 
in which he repels the charge of the Republicans that the 
Democrats were opposed to the principle of such legislation, 
and appeals to the record to demonstrate that the Democrats 
first initiated the Homestead bills in Congress and that Gen. 
Dodge had always supported and promoted legislative proposals 
for free homesteads. 

Another editorial denounced the Mayor of Sioux City be- 
cause of a rumor charging that an ordinance restricting billiard 
halls and saloons was being manipulated so as "to catch the 
German vote." Finally a long leader headed "Adopted Citi- 
zens Read," made an appeal to the foreign born and again 
it was ad terrorem. 

Mr. Ziebach opens with : "How in Massachusetts, the home 
and seat of Republicanism, you are proclaimed outcasts." In 
that state the Negro is "received with open arms," but the 
man who happens to have been born on "foreign soil is scorned 
and despised, and condemned to seven years probation." Then 
is reprinted again the provisions of the "Two Year" Amend- 
ment. Mr. Ziebach then reproduces the strong language of 

— 126 — 



the Boston Atlas and Bee when discussing the relative abilities 
of Negroes "raw Irishmen and ignorant Dutchmen." But the 
language of the Republicans of Boston is likewise the language 
of the Republicans of Ohio. He then quotes the Cleveland 
Herald which he declares "one of the most influential Re- 
publican papers in Ohio," in heavy-faced type : 

WE UNHESITATINGLY AVER THAT SEVEN 
TENTHS OF THE FOREIGNERS OF OUR LAND. 
WHO BOW IN OBEDIENCE TO THE POPE OF 
ROME. ARE NOT AS INTELLIGENT AS THE 
FULL BLOODED AFRICANS OF OUR STATES— 
WE WILL NOT INCLUDE THE PART BLOODED." 

Such is the protection which Republicans show to 
foreigners. It is the spirit and genuine sentiment of the 
party everywhere. If they profess a different feeling in 
Iowa it is only in disguise of their real sentiments, and 
because open avowed hostility now would prove their over- 
throw. 

Can our German and Irish friends rest easy and con- 
tent under such treatment? Are you to be degraded be- 
low the Negro? Will you undergo proscription — suffer 
yourselves to be branded as "raw^ Irishmen" and "ignorant 
Dutchmen," and yet wheel into line with this Republican 
party — uphold its organization and extend its power? 
Have you not hereditary as well as constitutional rights 
in this heritage of freedom? Was it not purchased, in 
part, by blood of your countrymen — of Montgomery, 
Pulaski, DeKalb, Kosiuscko, I^Fayette? Be as ready to 
defend your rights as your Fathers were to secure them. 
They are guaranteed you by the constitution and denied 
only by the Republican creed. Where do honor, pride, 
interest, independence say you should be found at the 
approaching election ? 

It was with such arguments that Democratic editors made 
their appeal to the electors of Iowa in 1859 to drive the Re- 
publican party from power. 

XXV. 

The major matters of the gubernatorial campaign in Iowa 
in 1859 have been presented — such as the grand objectives of 
the arguments and appeals of editors and speakers and the 
general maneuvers of the party managers. The public and 

— 127 — 



the politicians were ready for a division and a count of heads. 
Before proceeding, however, to an analysis of the returns of 
the vote a few minor items and maneuvers resorted to in the 
last days of the canvass may be noted, the latter particularly 
being instructive as showing that the "foreign vote" was con- 
stantly in the foreground of the plans of the managers of both 
parties up to the very last minute, as it was at the very outset 
of the campaign. 

In Anamosa, the county seat of Jones county, party strife 
appears to have been especially energetic ; and subterranean 
methods were charged against the Republicans. One accusa- 
tion is interesting in the present connection : it suggests a phase 
of procedure that has been heard of in other places and in 
other times. In the latter days of the canvass an indignant 
citizen wrote the Anamosa Ga:;ette a letter charging that "a 
prominent Republican Railroad officer" had offered the Catho- 
lic priest of that community a site for a church and additional 
land for the Priest's house. The offer was accompanied by 
further offers" of means and materials on credit for the pur- 
pose of constructing those buildings. The condition of the of- 
fers and the comments of the writer are given below : 

****** if he [the priest] would use his influence to se- 
cure the CatlioHc vote of this county for the Republican 
candidates. This Republican leader is a rabid Know 
Nothing and would cut the throat of every Catholic in 
America if he had the power; and now for his own ag- 
grandizement, is secretly and covertly oft'ering bribes to 
gain that which his principles has placed forever beyond 
his reach ******* ^: * * Does he suppose that by of- 
fering to donate grounds ******** on credit, will 
atone for the riots and bloodshed at Louisville and Phila- 
delphia. The murder of innocent women and children, the 
driving of legal voters from the ballot box and the de- 
gradation of the foreigner by placing him in the scale of 
social and political equality [sic] below the Negro. 

Mr. Dorr regarded the communication to the Anamosa 
Gazette sufficiently serious to cause him [Oct. 21 to direct the 
attention of the wide circle of readers of The Dubuque Her- 
ald to its allegations. The communicants of the Catholic 

— 128 — 



cliurcli were more numerous in Dubuque and environs than in 
any other part of the state and the alleged attempt at corrupt 
solicitation was consecjuently pariicularly interesting to Mr. 
Dorr's readers. 

The Democratic party in Dubuque county was rent with 
bitter factional strife and in the last days of the canvass the 
factionists made many open bids for the support of the Ger- 
mans. Each one sought to turn the current in their favor by 
direct appeals to German prejudice and German interest. The 
proslavery faction was in the ascendancy. Its success in the 
county convention produced a "bolt" and an independent ticket 
was put in the field. As a maneuvre for disturbing the lines 
of the "Regulars" the bolters began circulating the charge 
that "Mr. Mahony, among others, voted fin the Legislature 
at Des Moines in 1858] against printing the Governor's mes- 
sage in the German language." One of the factionists declared 
to be engaged in thus creating prejudice against Mr. Mahony 
was a Mr. Neebauer. Another "campaign story" was that the 
last named was also "circulating the report that the Hon. 
Theophilus Crawford voted against an amendment to the 
liquor law by which native wine and beer are exempt from the 
operation of the prohibitory act * * * " The charges were 
deemed so serious, or the effect of their circulation was be- 
lieved to be so detrimental, that Mr. Dorr felt it necessary to 
make a solemn denial of both reports and to set forth the 
substantial facts in a leader [Oct. 8] three days before the 
election. 

Almost the first, if indeed it was not the first, practical 
measure presented to Mr. Kirkwood after his nomination for 
insuring his and Mr. Rusch's election was the suggestion of 
Senator Grimes in his letter of June 23 urging that serious 
and systematic efforts be put forth to ascertain the names and 
addresses of all the Germans and other foreign-born who were 
eligible to citizenship upon the completion of the process of 
naturalization and suggesting a concert of action in pushing 
forward the completion thereof. We are to presume, of course, 
that he contemplated only the completion of the papers of 

— 129 — 



those who indicated clearly or gave considerable hope that they 
favored the Republican cause and ticket. 

The evidence as to the amount of energy exerted in this 
direction and the nature of the efforts put forth is meagre but 
there is enough to make one conclude that both parties were 
anxious and solicitous about the activity of opponents, as well 
as of the foreign-born themselves in the furtherance of 
naturalization. There were evidently lively suspicions of 
sharp practices rampant in Dubuque county. The Times of 
that city charged that Democrats were imposing upon the 
foreign-born seeking naturalization, charging them excessive 
fees for the issu-ince of certificates, and misdirecting them with 
evil design. TJic Doily Herald instantly [Oct. 5] retorted that 
the accusation was absurd; the fee that could l)e charged was 
statutory and could not be arbitrarily increased ; and this fact 
could be easily ascertained by any one seeking naturalization. 

In one of the Circular Letters [No. 4] sent out from the 
headquarters of the Republican State Central Committee at 
Des Moines under date of September 14, the Chairman, Mr. 
Jno. A. Kasson, gave the local committeemen, candidates and 
party workers a warning, saying: "Information has been 
given the committee that organized arrangements have been 
made in Illinois and Missouri, and perhaps in Nebraska, to 
throw hundreds of voters into the border counties and doubtful 
districts at the next election." When Mr. Kasson penned the 
letter he frankly told the local leaders that the prospect for 
the success of the party was more or less uncertain, particularly 
in districts rent with the dissentions of discontented repub- 
licans. 

Charges of such tactics in electoral contests, and the fear 
of such proceedings were traditional on the borderline of the 
state and along the outskirts of any important voting precincts : 
and in those days there usually was more or less ground to 
justify such fears. The but recent experiences of the people 
of Kansas in their various attempts to adopt a constitution 
created premises for stout suspicions and tmtoward expecta- 
tions. The Republican workers at Keokuk evidently antici- 
pated such importation of voters ; for the Chairman of the 

— 130 — 



County Central Conmiittee, Mr. J. B. Howell, editor of the 
Gate City, made a standing offer of $50.00 reward to any one 
who would secure the conviction of any one attempting to vote 
illegally. 

Voters thus imported were not necessarily foreign-born ; 
but they probably were chiefly such. Contractors in that de- 
cade building bridges and doing work along the river, or 
constructing plank or railroads then as now, employed con- 
siderable numbers, "gangs," of recently arrived European 
emigrants. They invariably became a temptation to hard- 
pressed campaign managers and it was only the hawklike 
watchfulness of opponents that prevented them being used as 
"voting stock" by one party or the other. In the great contest 
of the year before between Lincoln and Douglas it was con- 
stantly charged by the Republicans that gangs of Irish laborers 
working on the Illinois Central Railroad were effectually used 
by the field managers of Senator Douglas. 

The intensity and range of this suspicion in this matter of 
illegal infusion and use of ineligible voters was most strikingly 
shown in an editorial in The De Witt Standard [Sept. 30] in 
Clinton county. Mr. O. C. Bates, the editor, under the start- 
ling heading, "Forged Naturalization Papers," sounded a 
warning thus : 

We understand that the state is being flooded with 
forged naturalization papers to be used on the day of 
election. Let every township in the county be thoroughlv 
canvassed, and every voter's name registered prior to 
the election. The Democracy knowing that they are in 
a minority in this state, are determined to carry it by 

fraud 

Mr. Bates did not give his readers any clue as to the source 
of his information. It would be highly instructive, and doubt- 
less highly interesting to know what the evidence was war- 
ranting such a tremendous statement. The plot which he 
declared was then under way was such a stupendous proceed- 
ing and such a gross perversion of law and order, implying 
either such reckless impudence and ignorance, or such utter 
abandon in lawlessness and contempt for decency that we must 
conclude that he allowed his imagination to run riot and un- 

— 131 — 



consciously magnified molehills into mountains, or converted 
fears, hints and suspicions into solid facts. 

In Sioux City the party videttes thought that they "saw 
things," that aroused grave suspicions and some of them cried 
aloud in protest and w^arning: and again it w^as the Germans 
who were the casus belli. The Republicans were apparently 
in control of the city government. In the week preceding the 
election Mr. Zieback learned of what he regarded as extra- 
ordinary activity on the part of the Administrative officers. 
The keeper of a hotel and billiard hall was notified that a cer- 
tain city ordinance restricted his activities and he was notified 
to comply strictly with its provisions. Mr. Zieback at once 
suspected that the activity of the Mayor was too ostentatious 
to be sincere and charged openly in The Sioux City Register 
that it smacked of oflFensive partizanship. The keeper of the 
place was a German and his editorial comment concludes: 

Inasmuch as this ordinance had not been strictly en- 
forced hitherto, our German friends thought this sudden 
movement of the Mayor somewhat singular, and the fact 
of their dissatisfaction was made known to his Honor, 
who, we are informed, shifted the responsibility upon 
the marshal. It has since been intimated that after elec- 
tion the matter will be attended to, and the ordinance 
enforced. 

Now what we complain of is the duplicity being prac- 
ticed merely to catch German votes. The whole thing 
is too transparent to deceive anybody. Our Mayor, just 
now. hasn't the nerve to face the music — but after the 
election how will it be? Are the Germans to be caught 
in this gull trap set for the purpose of obtaining their 
votes? We do not believe it." 

The turns and twists of patriots and philosophers, called 
politicians, in their efforts to save the country, were the same 
in colour and substance in the heroic days of the past as they 
are in these prosaic days and ever shall be so long as sons of 
Adam continue to possess the earth. 

XXVI. 

Sufficient has been presented, perhaps, to convince the most 
skeptical and obdurate that Germans and their interests, Ger- 

— 132 — 



man sensibilities and German votes constituted one of the 
two grand objectives of the gubernatorial campaign in Iowa 
in 1859; and our analysis of the discussion and party man- 
euvers might therefore appropriately conclude. Two addi- 
tional citations from the Republican press will be given, 
however: not merely for the purpose of confirmation and 
further emphasis of what has already been displayed but to 
demonstrate that Germans and their votes occupied the very 
forefront of the consciousness of the Republican party leaders, 
and they seemed to be the chief consideration in mind when 
they put forth their last appeals and paused and turned aside 
to the polls to cast their ballots. 

In sundry connections we have seen how generally in the 
middle and latter weeks of September Democratic editors — 
Messrs. Biles, Dorr, Morgan, Porter, Richardson, Stoekel, 
Wellslager and Zieback — turned their batteries upon the Re- 
publicans anent the Germans and upon the Germans themselves 
and sought by means of a raking fire to arouse the resentment 
of the Germans by detailed displays of acts and expressions 
of Republicans that asserted animosity towards the Germans 
or that imported hostility to the measures that were the objects 
of ardent desire among Germans. Thus "That Amendment" 
was extensively reprinted in extenso in heavy face type ; and 
likewise the slashing comments of The Boston Atlas and Bee 
comparing the relative merits of free Blacks in Massachusetts 
with the "raw Irishmen and ignorant Dutchmen," who were 
then swarming within the precincts of Boston, ascribing more 
virtue and intelligence to the former than to the latter; and 
also the explicit avowal of The Herald of Cleveland. Ohio, 
that the full blooded African was superior in intelligence 
to "seven-tenths of the foreigners of our land who bow in 
obedience to the Pope of Rome." On September 14 the 
Democratic Clarion displayed "The Republican Creed" with a 
subhead, "Extracts from the Articles of Faith," taken from 
"the Writings and Speeches of the Leading Professors." 
Thereupon follow sundry striking excerpts under a sub-caption 
"The Negroes Superior to Foreigners and Democrats" from 
the papers just mentioned, followed by equally striking ex- 

— in3 — 



tracts from speeches of Chase and Giddings demandmg 
equality of treatment for Blacks and Whites, closing with one 
insisting upon their equal consideration in the schools. The 
extracts given approximated two columns and their publica- 
tion must have had a telling effect among the belligerent 
Negrophobists of the State, particularly in sections where 
Southern stocks were predominant. The pith and point of 
the "Republican Creed' as thus exhibited was the degrada- 
tion of the white man, natives no less than foreign-born, and 
the exaltation of the Negro. 

The Republicans as we have seen were keenly alive to the 
effect of such arraignments and exhibits ; and they instituted 
measures of counteraction. Mr. Howells of The Gate City 
contemplating the tactics of the Democrats conceived a counter- 
blast of similar character: which he represented in his issues 
of Friday and Saturday [Oct. 6-7] with the following for a 
heading : 

LOOK AT THE RECORD 

fi®"- Read and Ponder *°@a 

The New "Democratic" Doctrine. 

SLAVERY not to be confined to the Negro race hut 

to be made the universal condition of 

the laboring class of society. 

Thereupon is presented nearly four columns giving first a 
succinct summaries of the pro-slavery program and then ex- 
tracts from speeches of Southern statesmen exhibiting the 
animus and designs of the pro-slavery party. 

The first exhibit summarizes the stages in the progress of 
the demands of the South as regards Slavery: — First, the 
South desired simply protection of its "human chattels" in the 
states wherein it prevailed. Second, there ensued the demand 
for new Slave States to insure the equality, if not pre- 
dominance of the Slave States in Congress and National 
affairs. Third, the significance of the Repeal of the Missouri 
Compromise is displayed. Fourth, then is outlined the growth 
of the demands of the South through the courts of an un- 

— 134 — 



restricted right of way into and through the Free States of 
the North ; and Fifth, 

"But the last, the croiening, the diabolical assumption is, 
that slavery is not to be confined to the NEGRO RACE, but 
must be made to include laboring WHITE MEN also. This 
doctrine, which is so monstrous and shocking as almost to 

seem incredible, is now openly avowed and defended 

Following are some of the extracts from "Buchanan 
papers" and "Buchanan speeches" assembled and offered in 
proof of its assertion by The Gate City: 

Until recently, the defense of slavery has labored 
under great difficulties, because its apologists [for they 

were mere apologists] took half way grounds 

The line of defense, hov.'cver. is now changed. The 
South now maintains that slavery is right, natural, and 
necessary and does not depend upon difference of com- 
plexion.' The laws of the slave states justify the holdmg 
of WHITE MEN in bondage.— Richmond Exanimer. 

* * * 

Slavery is the natural and normal condition of the 
laboring' man zvhether WHITE or BLACK. The great 
evil of Northern free society is, that it is burdened with 
a servile class of MECHANICS and LABORERS, unfit 
for self government, and yet clothed with the attributes 
and powers of citizens, and slaves i^ a relation in so- 
ciety as necessary as that of parent and child; and the 
Nortb.ern states 'will yet have to introduce it. Their 
history of free government is a delusion. South Caro- 
lina 

* * * 

Repeatedly have we asked the North, "Has not the ex- 
l)eriment of' imivcrsal liberty FAILI'.D?^ Are not the 
evils of free societv insufferable^ " 

We repeat, then, th.at policy and humanity alike for- 
bids the extension of the evils of FREE society— R\ch- 

mond Enquirer. 

* * * 

FREE societv ! We sicken at the name !— what is it 
Imt a conglomeration of greasx mechanics, fdthy oper- 
atizes small fisted farmers, and moonstruck theonsts? 
All the Northern, and csoecially the New England states. 
are devoid of society fitted for well-bred gentlemen. 

—Muscogee [Ala.] Herald. 

— 135 — 



We have got to haling everything with the prefix 
FREE, from free Negroes down and up through the 
whole catalog— FREE Farms, FREE Labor, FREE So- 
ciety, FREE Will, FREE Children and FREE SCHOOLS 
all belonging to the same brood of damnable isms. But 
the worst of all these abominations is the modern sys- 
tem of FREE SCHOOLS. The New England system 
of Free Schools has been the cause and prolific source of 
the infidelities and treasons that have turned her cities into 
Sodoms and Gomorrhas, and her land into the common 
nestling places of howling Bedlamites. We abominate 
the system because the SCHOOLS are FREE. — South 
Side Democrat. 

* * * 

Sell the parents of these children [of Poor Whites, 
Americans, Germans and Irish] into SLAVERY. Let 
our Legislature pass a law that whoever will take these 
parents and take care of them and their offspring, in 
sickness and in health, — clothe them, feed them and house 

them, — shall be legally entitled to their services 

— N. Y. Day Book. 

So much for extracts from "Democratic" Newspapers. 
Now for a few from Democratic speeches. 

I call upon the opponents of slavery to prove that the 
zvhite laborers of the North are as happy, as contented, 
or as comfortable as the Slaves of the South. In the 
South the slaves do not suffer one tenth of the evils en- 
dured by the white laborers of the North. Poverty is 
unknown to the Southern slave, for as soon as the master 
becomes too poor to provide for theiii. he sells them to 
others who can take care of them. This, sir, is one of 
the excellencies of the system of slavery, and this is the 
superior condition of the Southern slave over the North- 
ern white laborer. — S. W. Downs, U. S. Senator from 
Louisiana. 

* * * 

The operatives of New England were not as well situ- 
ated, nor as comfortable off as the slaves who cultivate 
the rice and cotton fields of the South. — J. J. Clemmans, 
U. S. Senritor, Alabama. 



The same construction of the power of Congress to 
exclude slavery from a United States Territorv, would 
— 136 — 



justify the ('.overnnici.t in excluding foreign-born citi- 
zents, — Ccrntans and Irish as Tcr// os Niggers. — Mr. Rey- 
nolds. Democratic candidate for Congress in Missouri. 

Here a Missouri Democrat classes Germans and Irish 
indiscriminately with Xegro Shii'es. 

* * :): 

Senator Butler, (the Uncle of "assassin" Brooks), a 
shining light in the Democratic galaxy, declared in a 
speech in the L'. S. Senate: 

That men have no right to VOTE unless they are 
possessed of property as required by the Constitution of 
South Carolina. There no mo)i can vote unless he owns 
ten Negroes or real estate to the value of $10,000. 
The samples of Southern pro-slavery sentiment thus pre- 
sented to the electors of Iowa for the edification of the Saints 
and the instruction of sinners are interesting on several ac- 
counts. For the most part they were expressions elicited in 
the stormy debates preceding or contemporary with the dis- 
cussion of the Repeal of the Missouri Compromise in 1854, 
or the various attempts made to establish the Territorial 
Government of Kansas in 1856-7-8. Disassociated from the 
particular circumstances of the debates in which they were 
pertinent the use of the extracts thus was more or less unfair. 
But this is the wont of partizans. 

The correlation of the discussion of the status of the 
Foreign-born and the status of the Negro and the suggestion 
of the coincidence of the premises of the rights of both are 
subtly insinuated. The Southern leaders in the violence of 
their reaction against the endless and ruthless assaults upon 
the institution of slavery by abolitionists, Free Soilers and 
Republicans in the North had retorted with Aristotelian argu- 
ments and religious ', rounds in defense of Slavery as natural, 
right and eminent!, fit. Moreover the then prevailing in- 
dustrial depression following the financial crisis of 1857 had 
produced such widespread acute distress among the manual 
laborers of the North, particularly in the large cities as to 
revive the inquiry whether freedom and poverty were prefer- 
able to Slavery and an assured living. 

Mr. Howell would have his readers infer that the sugges- 
tion of the enslavement of the whites was an atrocious pro- 

— 1.17 — 



posal heard only in the South or advocated by obdurate pro- 
slavery sympathizers in the North. He was either ignorant 
of, or deliberately ignored, the fact that for two decades 
preceding, especially in England, similar sentiments, expressed 
in various and variegated rhetoric had constantly enlivened 
public debate. The exposure of the frightful conditions in the 
mines and factories of England wherein women and children 
were employed produced a general denunciation and outcry 
that Englishmen lived the life of slaves and were helpless and 
hopeless. Simultaneously many notable Germans, e. g., Karl 
Marx and Frederick Engels were proclaiming, through their 
Manifesto for the Communist Party and later writings, the 
oppression of the proletariat by capitalists through the ap- 
propriation, or rather the confiscation of man's "surplus value" 
produced by his labor at the dictation of Capital, and the 
condition of manual workers was by them declared, in lurid 
and ghastly narratives, to be sodden servitude, no better than 
that endured by their ancestors in the Dark Ages. German 
refugees in the United States in considerable numbers were 
Communists and Socialists of the radical sort. Messrs. Karl 
Heinzen and Wilhelm Weitling, Gustave Struve, Joseph 
Wedemeyer and August Willich, and scores of confreres had 
spoken and written of the condition of the common laborers 
of the North in language that made the expressions of Senators 
Butler, Clemmans and Reynolds mild as milk in contrast.-® 

Mr. Howell cites the observation of J\lr. Downs to the 
effect that the agitation which demands the exclusion of 
Negroes from Kansas could also turn and demand the ex- 
clusion of foreigners from the same territory, and Mr. Howell, 
we must presume, would have the voters conclude that the 
suggestion was monstrous and unheard of, save from ruth- 
less defenders of slavery. Republicans displayed such a gross 
inconsistency in their conduct and discussion as to make one 
curious about their sincerity — either their mental vision was 
seriously at fault or their morals were sadly awry. One 
moment they were insisting with explicit assertion and terrible 
emphasis that Negroes were human beings and, as such, en- 
titled to all the rights and equities enjoyed by white persons. 

— 138 — 



The next moment, if a Southerner should suggest or assert 
that foreigners were in the same category with Negroes before 
the law, in the same status, the same ardent advocates of race 
equality held up their hands in pious amazement and exclaimed 
at the degradation of the foreigners to the level of the Negro. 
Mr. Reynolds, it is to be observed, did not. so far as the extract 
cited goes to show, class "Germans and Irish indiscriminately 
vi^ith Negro slaves ;" — he merely called attention to what was 
incontrovertible and what every lawyer and student of our 
national history who appreciated the A B Cs of our constitu- 
tional law knew, namely, that if Congress had authority to 
exclude the slaveholder and his slaves from Kansas, it had 
equal authority to exclude foreigners likewise. The astonish- 
ing fact about the citation was, Mr. Howell apparently was 
heedless of the fact that Mr. Reynolds was denying that Con- 
gress had any such authority. 

Senator Butler's sentiment, last cited by Mr. Howell, and 
the horrific implication the editor of The Gate City would have 
the electors of Iowa infer therefrom, again illustrates much of 
the unfairness in the argument of the Republicans in that 
campaign. Restrictions upon the exercise of the electoral 
franchise were universal throughout the states of the North. 
Educational anl moral qualifications were general. Fiscal and 
property qualifications were likewise prevalent. No state had 
such high requirements as the state of South Carolina. Rhode 
Island, however, had a qualification in her franchise that ap- 
proximated the conditions enforced in the Palmetto state, and 
the franchise of the Northern Free State was more rigorous 
in effect and in ethics than was the case with the law of the 
Southern State. South Carolina was living under her con- 
stitution adopted in 1790, whereas Rhode Island was living 
under a Supreme Statute adopted in 1842. If the attitude of 
South Carolina was reprehensible, the constitution of Rhode 
Island was more reprehensible. Rhode Island was not per- 
plexed with a servile population. Her electors and statesmen 
being descendants of Puritan stocks — and pursuant to the New 
New Englander's mode of reasoning, therefore to be presumed 
to be of superior intellectual stature and higher moral stan- 

— 189 — 



dards — were the more recreant, if such were the case — a con- 
clusion by no means tenable. The policy of Rhode Island 
was and is defensible. The constitution of South Carolina 
was not a whit less defensible. And there was no infringe- 
ment of the basic rights of mankind and no degradation of 
the electors implied in either case. 

The merits of the discussion aside, the article in The Gate 
City demonstrates again beyond cavil that the votes of Ger- 
mans and other non-natives were in the forefront of public 
consciousness in Southeastern Iowa on the eve of the election 
in 1859 precisely as we have seen was the case in Northeastern 
Iowa and in Northwestern Iowa. At Keokuk, as at Dubuque 
and at Sioux City, the appeal to the Germans and Non-natives 
was more or less general in character. At Muscatine, how- 
ever, the appeal was direct and open to the Germans as such, 
and it was in the form of an explicit address. The following 
appeared in the editorial columns of Mr. John Mahin's paper, 
The Daily Muscatine Journal on the morning of October 6: 
To the German Voters of Muscatine County: You 
will be called upon on Tuesday next to decide between 
barren professions of friendship for you of the Demo- 
cratic party, with its hateful policy of aiding and en- 
couraging an institution hostile to every principle of 
justice and liberty and your own dearest interests, and 
a party that has proved the sincerity of its regard for 
you by many substantial tokens and which is the only 
true champion of free homes, free labor, and the pro- 
tection of citizenship. Associated with the gallant Kirk- 
wood, Nicholas J. Rusch, your countryman, stands at 
the head of the "Plowhandle Ticket" — a man whose 
worth has before been tested in an exalted station of 
public trust and has every claim upon your undivided con- 
fidence and support. He has been shamefully abused by 
those who are endeavoring to procure his defeat for 
speaking your own language — the only accusation they 
have found in their power to bring against him. Let 
the flagrant abuse tJnis heaped upon a noble and worthy 
German be refuted in a fitting manner at the ballot box. 
Let Germans unitedly assist in demonstrating to a cor- 
rupt and proscriptive democracy, so-called, that there 
are no constitutional barriers that shall hinder Mr. Rusch 
from occupying the proud position in the government 

— 140 — 



of this state for which he is so eminently qualified. 
Frisch auf! for KIRKWOOD, RUSCH and the whole 
Republican ticket. 

The appeal to Germans is instructive on several i;rounds, 
both general and particular. The editor of the Journal was 
probably persona non grata to the Germans in Muscatine 
county and he doubtless appreciated the fact thoroughly. 
Mr. Mahin was then, as he has been from that day down to 
the present [September 1914] a radical advocate and ardent 
promoter of drastic legislation restricting the manufacture and 
sale of alcoholic stimulants of any sort, and he had stood forth 
in the very front of the fight for such sumptuary legisla- 
tion. The Germans had been his stoutest opponents in the 
bitter local contests over the adoption and execution of the 
"Maine Law." Obviously Mr. Mahin. or the writer of the 
Address, assumed that the direct interest of the Germans in 
the continued supremacy of the Republican party was so great 
and pressing that they would suppress their discontent over 
the local interference with their personal pleasures and tradi- 
tional customs, and readily support the Republicans. The in- 
terests of the Germans and the anti-slavery party are assumed 
to be coincident. The appeal is direct to socialistic interest 
and design. It is no less avowedly made to race interest and 
race prejudice. The consideration impelling the composition 
of such an address, we may conclude was no abstract or 
philosophical interest ; the cause and the occasion were an 
immediate practical exigency — the fate of the Republican party 
in the impending election depended upon the course of the 
sons of Germania in casting their ballots. 

XXVII. 

The first reports from the election on October 11 indicated 
that Kirkwood and Rusch had carried the state and later 
official returns confirmed the initial impressions. The Re- 
publicans indulged in much jubilation — in flaring headlines 
and pretentious wood-cuts of crowing cockerels, etc. ; but 
the vociferation was hardly warranted. Indeed the basis of 

— 141 — 



justification was so narrow that one becomes curious as to 
whether or not the shouts over their triumph were not in fact 
expressions of reHef from oppressive anxiety over an an- 
ticipated defeat. 

The total vote of the state, according to the findings of 
the House and Senate of the General Assembly that canvassed 
the returns on January 11, 1860, amounted to 110,047, of 
which Kirk wood received 56,505 and Dodge 53,342, Kirk- 
wood's majority being 2,963. 

The total vote cast for Lieutenant Governor was reported 
to be 108,546. Of this vote N. J. Rusch received 55,142 and 
L. W. Babbitt 52,874, Rusch's majority being 2268. Some of 
the voters were negligent or confused and cast their votes for 
N. Rusch and N. P. Rusch and for S. W. Baldwin and S. W. 
and W. L. Babbitt. Including these, Rusch's total vote was 
55,459 and Babbitt's was 53,087 ; and Rusch's majority 2372. 

Desiring the vote by counties in order to discriminate the 
returns in the Southern and Northern, and in the Eastern and 
Western sections of the State I compiled the returns from the 
official records in the Hall of Archives. The compilation led 
to the discovery of sundry and serious differences in the 
various published statements, then, and since, current respect- 
ing the total votes and the majorities of the successful can- 
didates. The differences in detail are given in the note below. 

The total vote for Governor, as reported by the County 
Boards of Canvassers was 109,766 of which Kirkwood received 
56,534 and Dodge 53,232, giving Kirkwood a majority of 3302. 
The vote for Lieutenant Governor amounted to 108,619, of 
which Rusch received 55,779 and Babbitt 52,840, the majority 
of Rusch being 2939. Aside from the divergent votes due to 
confusion mentioned above, I cannot account for the differ- 
ences between the returns taken by the Joint Session of the 
General Assembly and the totals compiled from the County 
canvassers. There is no indication in the Senate Journal of 
contested or dubious returns. In what follows I have taken 
the figures of the Senate and House for the state at large and 

— 142 — 



those of the County canvassers in the analysis of the returns 
by counties and sections.-" 

The meagre majorities with which the party in power was 
sustained indicate conclusively that the Republicans held the 
reigns of authority with no firm and confident grip. If we 
take the returns accepted by the General Assembly and a 
change of less than 1500 would have given Gen. Dodge the 
victory: and a change of less than 1200 votes would have de- 
feated Air. Rusch. Such a narrow margin affords no basis 
for ecstatic glee and jollification. 

The significance of the majorities obtained by the Re- 
publicans in 1859 can only be realized by comparison with the 
next preceding two gubernatorial elections. James W. 
Grimes won his notable victory in 1854 by a majority of only 
2113 over his opponent Curtis Rates. Mr. Grimes' successor, 
Mr. Ralph P. Lowe, secured the office by a majority of only 
1406. Mr. Kirkwood's majority in 1859, while larger ab- 
solutely in point of numbers, was relatively less than that ob- 
tained by Mr. Grimes. This fact becomes apparent when we 
examine the proportions and ratios of the votes cast for the 
candidates and compare the percentages of the majorities of 
each with the total vote cast. 

2* The votes for Governor and Lieutenant Governor in 1859 are 
variously given as follows : 

Vote for Governor. 

Total Major- 

Vote Kirkwood Dodge ity 
A^. Y. Tribune Almanac [Ed, I860].. 109,608 56,291 53,327 2,964 
Iowa OfliciGl Register ['Ed.,\9U].. .109,834 56.502 53,332 3,170 

Jounial of Senate, 8th G. A 110,047 56,505 53.342 29.63 

Returns of County Canvassers 109,766 56,534 53,232 3,302 

Vote for Lieutenant Governor. 

Total Major- 

Vote Rusch Babbitt ity 

Journal, of Senate, 8th G. A 108,016 55,142 52.874 2.268 

Journal of Senate, 8th G. A 108,546 55,459 53,087 2.372 

Returns of County Canvassers 108.619 55.779 52.640 2.939 

The New York Tribune Almanac merely states that Rusch's 
majority was "about 2700." 

The second entries opposite Journal of Senate next preceeding 
include the sundry divergent votes for "N. Rusch," "W. L. Babbitt," et al. 

— 143 — 



Mr. Grimes received 52.3 per cent of the total vote cast in 
1854 and his opponent 47.7 per cent. In 1859 Mr. Kirkwood 
obtained but 51.3 per cent of the entire vote and Gen. Dodge 
secured 48.7 per cent. Mr. Kirkwood fell below Mr. Grimes 
ratio by one per cent. In 1854 the Whigs or Opposition won 
by a majority that constituted 4.7 per cent of the total vote. 
But Mr. Kirkwood's majority constituted only 2.7 per cent 
of the entire vote cast in 1859.^*^ This drop of two points 
amounted to nearly one half that obtained by Mr. Grimes. 
It indicates with certainty that the Republicans made their 
campaign and won their victory with a shrinking margin. 

The adverse significance of this narrow margin is enhanced 
when we appreciate the purport of the emigration and im- 
migration of the state in the preceding years of the decade. 
During the period following the war with Mexico there had 
been a large emigration from Iowa, first to Oregon, then to 
California, and then to Kansas and Nebraska. The outflow 
from Iowa was especially strong in the forepart of 1859 by 
reason of the discoveries of gold in and about Denver, in what 
is now Colorado. 

In this westward emigration, as was common in antecedent 
movements into the upper reaches of the Ohio valley in prior 
decades, Southerners were the pathfinders and trail makers, 
the "Squatters" and constituted the majority of the frontiers- 
men. They were always the first to "move on." Of this 

3" The votes, proportions or ratios, majorities and per cents thereof 
of the total vote are presented in detail below : 

Per 

Cent 

of 

Total 

Vote 

4.7 

1.8 



2.7 



— 144 — 





Candidates 


1854 


Grimes 




Bates 


1857 


Lowe 




Samuels 




Henry 


1859 


Kirkwood 




Dodge 



Party 


Vote 


Ratio 


Majority 


Whig 


23,325 


52.3 


2,113 


Democrat 


21,202 


47.7 




Republican 


38,498 


50.9 


1,406 


Democrat 


36.088 


47.7 




American 


1,004 


1.4 




Republican 


56,505 


51.3 


2,963 


Democrat 


53,342 


48.7 





emigrant population from Iowa between 1850 and 1860, by 
far the greater proportion, in my judgment, were Democrats 
in politics and "pro-slavery" in their attitude towards the 
great moot question in public debate — at least they were not 
Abolitionists and gave little or no tolerance to those enter- 
taining such views. 

This loss of Democratic voters was not only augmented 
but was made emphatic by a concurrent immigration of 
emigrants from New England and New York and their 
westernized descendants from Michigan and Wisconsin and 
northern Ohio, Indiana and Illinois. These "Yankees," on 
the contrary, mainly held "anti-slavery" views and acted chiefly 
with the "Opposition" or Republican factions or party. 
This immigration from New England, between 1854 and 1860 
was phenomenal, if we may believe contemporary comment. 
The Dubuque Reporter, referring to the crowds pouring into 
Iowa in 1855 and crossing the river at Dubuque said : "Day 
by day the endless procession moves on. They come by hun- 
dreds and thousands from the hills and vallies of New England, 
bringing with them the same untiring energ}- and perseverance 
that made their native states the admiration of the world." 

This increase in the voters with "anti-slavery" predilections 
during that decade was in some part counterbalanced by the 
coincident inflow of emigrants from the South and of the 
descendants of Southerners from Southwestern Pennsylvania, 
from southern Ohio, Indiana and Illinois, where sons of the 
Old South predominated. But a very considerable proportion 
of these immigrants from the Southern states and of their 
northernized descendants from the Trans-Ohio valley was 
antagonistic towards Slavery itself, although little given to 
Abolitionism. 

With the drift of conditions decidedly towards the numer- 
ical preponderance of the Republicans the narrow escape of 
the Republicans from defeat and ouster is highly significant. 

It is in the light of these facts that we have to examine the 
returns for Lieutenant Governor in 1859. 

— 145 — 



XXVIII. 

A iTKintli after the election. The Hawkey e of Burlington, 
discussing "The Result," when the official returns were prob- 
ably fairly well known and assembled, thus expressed itself 
respecting the result as regards Mr. Rusch : : 

RUSCH'S MAJORITY:— It is certain that Rusch 
will have a majority in the state as large as Kirk wood, 
and it may be, larger. He ran ahead of his ticket in most 
of the counties in the eastern part of the state, but it was 
supposed that he would fall behind in the west, more es- 
pecially on the slope. But that is not the case ; he ran 
ahead of Kirkwood in nearly all of the western counties. 
In fact, we do not recollect a single county, except Pot- 
tawattamie, where this was not the case. We should not 
be surprised, therefore, to find that Rusch's majority is 
the largest of any candidate on our state ticket. 

The result is peculiarly gratifying because the Demo- 
cratic party, put forth its greatest eflforts to defeat Mr. 
Rusch. He was the target at which the Democratic press 
largely aimed its F>illingsgate. He was ridiculed as a 
'"Dutchman" who could not speak the English language 
intelligibly. And to cap the climax a miserable renegade 
German was hired [and the price of his infamy refused 
after the work was done], to follow after and abuse Mr. 
Rusch. He was thus abused in English and in German 
— in the papers and on the stump, everywhere. That he 
came out ahead is therefore peculiarly gratifying to 
Republicans. 

Mr. Dunhnm ordinarily was reasonably cautious in making 
statements as to facts and fairly conservative — compared with 
conteinporary partizan editors — in expression of claims. The 
editorial ju'^t cited, however, tested in the light of the actual 
returns must be ])ut down as the exception which proves the 
rule. Mr. Dunham's statement that Mr. Rusch ran ahead of 
his ticket in "most of the counties in the eastern part" of 
Iowa and in "nearly all of the western counties" proves to 
be the reverse of the facts. What precisely he may have 
meant by his terms "eastern part" and "the slope," or rather 
how much territory he comprehended in tlie terms is not cer- 
tain : but whether he meant merely the border counties of the 
state on the Mississippi and Missouri rivers, or all of the 

— 146 — 



counties in Eastern and Western Iowa, Mr. Dunham's state- 
ment was grossly in error. 

In Eastern Iowa out of 47 counties Mr. Rusch's majority 
equaled Mr. Kirkwood's in five counties and exceeded his 
chief's in only 11 counties; and it fell below in nineteen coun- 
ties. In Western Iowa out of 48 counties he ran ahead in 
10 counties, equaled Kirkwood's in six and fell below in five 
counties. General Dodge carried 27 counties. 

If we look at the actual votes cast for each candidate 
The Haivkeye's statement is more extravagant and reckless 
of the facts. In the east half of the state Mr. Rusch ran 
exactly even with Mr. Kirk wood in 8 counties, ahead in 10 
counties and behind in 29 counties. In the west half, while 
stronger as we have seen, he ran ahead of Mr. Kirkwood 
in only 11 counties; he obtained exactly the same vote as his 
associate did in 14 counties and fell below Mr. Kirkwood 
in 22 counties. 

If we take the counties that border on the two great rivers 
forming the eastern and western boundaries of the state Mr. 
Dunham's statement cannot be sustained. In the counties on 
the Mississippi river the Republicans carried five out of the 
ten and out of the five Rusch ran behind Kirkwood in four 
counties. In only four out of the ten did Rusch's vote 
exceed Kirkwood's vote in the ten counties. Of the seven 
counties on the Missouri river the Republicans carried but 
two. In both of those Rusch's majority exceeded Kirkwood. 

In the state at large the final and official returns as we 
have seen showed that Mr. Kirkwood had the larger vote. 
Taking the findings of the House and Senate when they re- 
ported the results of their canvass, and Kirkwood's majority 
was 2,963 and Rusch's majority was only 2.268 by strict 
count or 2,372 by generous count, nearly a fourth less than 
Kirkwood's majority. 

Of the 58 counties carried by Kirkwood and Rusch, 
Rusch's majority was less than Kirkwood in 24 counties, more 
in 21 counties and the same as his associate in 13 counties. 
If we take the vote of the state regardless of their winning 

— 147 — 



or losing, and Rusch's vote was less than Kirkwood's in 51 
counties, in excess in 21 counties and exactly even in 24 
counties. 

If we examine the returns from the townships and from 
the cities and towns, so far as they may be discriminated from 
the returns of the townships, and we may note the same gen- 
eral relations of Kirkwood's and Rusch's majorities and votes. 
I have obtained the returns by townships from some thirty 
counties and in 66 townships thereof Rusch's vote exceeded 
Kirkwood's ; it fell below in 165 townships ; and his vote was 
equal to Kirkwood's in 192 townships. The differences are 
more pronounced in the returns from the cities and towns. I 
have assembled the votes reported from some 42 voting pre- 
cincts containing urban populations and Rusch's vote ex- 
ceeded Kirkwood's in only 11 towns and cities; it exactly 
equaled his vote in five others ; and his vote fell behind in 26 
others. Some of the particulars are interesting. 

In Burlington, and Dubuque, in Ottumwa and Des Moines 
Mr. Rusch "ran ahead of his ticket," as the phrase goes. His 
superiority, however, was slight. In Davenport, Muscatine 
and Keokuk, in Cedar Rapids and Council Bluffs Rusch had 
smaller majorities than Kirkwood had. The results in the 
first three named are especially interesting because of the par- 
ticular appeals made to the Germans in the closing days of 
the campaign. The direct and particular effort of The Musca- 
tine Daily Journal to arouse the Germans to support the Re- 
publican ticket, made on the eve of the election, will be re- 
called. Mr. Mahin's columns, the morning following the 
election, stated : "We do not attempt to conceal our chagrin 
and disappointment at the partial defeat of the Republican 
ticket in this county." Kirkwood carried the county by 93 
votes. Rusch's majority was only 15. Kirkwood carried the 
city of Muscatine by 9 votes and Rusch lost it 49 votes. In 
his own county of Scott Mr. Rusch suffered some discom- 
fiture. Kirkwood's vote in Davenport was 1,168 votes and 
Rusch's only 1,094. Kirkwood's majority was 334 and Rusch's 
bst 270. In the county at large Kirkwood's majority was 583 
and Rusch's 468. 

— 148 — 



What Mr. Dunham based his editorial on I can not say ; 
but evidently upon some hastily gathered returns, or upon 
some hastily concluded observations of the returns. For in 
no general or particular relation can his assertions respecting 
Mr. Rusch's majorities or votes be sustained. 

XXIX. 

The results in some of the counties in which Germans, 
as such, were put forward as candidates, or in which Republi- 
cans ostentatiously paid court to the foreign-born and besought 
their votes, may here be noticed before dealing with the sig- 
nificance of the vote in the state at large. The returns were 
by no means decidedly favorable to the Republicans : although 
in the main they "split even" between the parties. 

In Marion County the Democrats held their own, despite 
the defection of Mr. Henry P. Scholte of Pella. In Lake 
Prairie township wherein the "Dutch Pilgrims" abounded and 
prevailed gave Mr. Kirkwood only 146 votes and Gen. Dodge 
364. In the county at large, however, the Republicans brought 
their opponent's majority down from 322 in 1857 to 182 in 
1859. 

The Republicans in Keokuk county endeavored by direct 
open maneuver to capture the German vote in the nomination 
of Mr. Charles Mertz for the Lower House of the Legislature, 
but they were generally worsted. In 1857 Mr. Ben M. Sam- 
uels, Democratic candidate for Governor, had a majority of 
one vote over Mr. R, P. Lowe, and in 1859 Gen. Dodge car- 
ried the county by 18 votes. Mr. Mertz could not overcome 
the stout prejudices of the numerou.s Southern folk in that 
county. 

The Repu])licans nominated Mr. C. W. Bodeman for the 
General Assembly in Des Moines county. The county con- 
tains Burlington which was then, as it is now. one of the 
three great German centers of the state. The election re- 
turns of the county show that the Republicans made general 
gains in the numbers and ratios of their votes from 1857 up 
to 1859: but the nomination of Mr. Bodeman did not allure 
enough Germans to overcome the old time Democratic preju- 

— 149 — 



dices of the voters of that county and send him to the Gen- 
eral Assembly. 

In Lee county the Germans constituted the right and 
center, so to speak of both battle lines. The Democrats, we 
have seen, were forced to call a second convention because 
of an impending revolt of the German Democrats, and nomi- 
nated Mr. Valentine Buechel of Ft. Madison for the State 
Senate. The discontent of the Germans was so pronounced 
that Mr. B. Hugel of Ft. Madison, became an Independent 
candidate for the Lower House of the General Assembly. 
The purport of the editorials of The Gate City seems to be 
that his design was to distract the German Democrats and 
thus enable the Republican candidate, Mr. Taylor, to make 
headway. The returns from the polls give color to this 
inference. Mr. Hugel obtained but 158 votes in the county. 
In Ft. Madison he received 92 votes, or almost one fifth of 
the vote. In Jackson township wherein Keokuk is, he re- 
ceived but 25 votes. The Regular Republican candidate evi- 
dently received nearly all the German vote, Mr. Taylor having 
783 as against 599 given Mr. Buechel. Mr. Hugel's sortie 
nearly accomplished its purpose. Mr. Buechel was elected 
by a bare plurality of 84. Had Mr. Hugel's 159 votes been 
thrown to Mr. Taylor the Republicans would have won by 
84 votes. 

The returns in Clayton divided honors. Nothwithstand- 
ing the sanguine anticipations of The Dubuque Times that 
the slogan "Kirkwood, Rusch and Nikolaus" would insure the 
Republicans increased majorities, the Democrats reduced the 
Republican majority and captured sundry local offices. They 
elected David Hammer to the Senate. Mr. Jacob Nikolaus 
was elected Treasurer by the Republicans. There must have 
been markd discontent among the Germans of Clayton be- 
cause Mr. Kirkwood's majority was only 201 against 355 for 
Mr. Grimes in 1854 and 230 for Mr. Lowe in 1857. Mr. 
Rusch we shall see forged ahead of his ticket in Clayton 
county. 

The result in Dubuque county was much mi.xed — with the 
net advantage on both sides going to the foreign-born. Judge 

— 150 — 



Hamilton, who had hccn Mr. Rusch's chief opponent in the 
contest for the nominntion for the Lietuenant (>ovcrnorship, 
himself an Enghshnian by birth, was nominated for tlie State 
Senate; but defeat wr.s his fate. Mr. Dennis Mahoney, one 
of the foremost Democratic leaders in the state, by reason of 
the bitter factionalism produced by the opposition to Senator 
Douglas' ambitions, was defeated in his candidacy for Treas- 
urer of the county. Mr. C. Denlinger, nominated for the Gen- 
eral Assembly by the Regular Democrats, was defeated. Mr. 
Frederick A. Gniflfkc, editor of Dcr National Deuiokrat, the 
sole Democratic German paper in the .state at that time, was 
another candidate of the regulars and he was successful. The 
largest vote given any of the candidates for the Legislature 
was accorded Mr. Francis Mangold, a native of France, who 
was nominated as an Independent candidate for the Lower 
House of the General Assembly : he received 2,676 votes. 

It is quite evident from the returns in the local contests 
that Germans, while potent, and their favor and active sup- 
port were essential to success, the definite, formal alliance 
with them, and the exaltation of them by the Republicans, 
involved equal dangers, the depression and distraction, if not 
dissipation of the native-American voters. In the current 
parlance of politicians the support of the Germans "cut both 
ways:" damage nearly balanced benefits. 

XXX. 

If The Haivkeye's claims for Mr. Rusch cannot be sus- 
tained, does it follow that his nomination by the Republi- 
can State Convention did not strengthen the chances of success 
for the ticket? A superficial scrutiny of the returns, par- 
ticularly of such ns those just exhibited, seems to warrant 
the conclusion that his nomination did not enhance his party's 
strength. Notwithstanding the contrary first imj^ression I 
believe an analysis of the votes for Governor and Lieutenant 
Governor nnd comparison with tlic returns for 18.^7 and 1854 
justifies the assertion that Mr. Rusch's nomination probably 
saved Mr. Kirkwood from defeat. The demonstration of the 
truth of this assertion is not easy; but it is feasible. 

— 151 — 



Sundry facts are to be born in mind as one examines the 
returns. First, the public ordinarily takes less interest in 
the nominee for Lieutenant Governor than it exhibits for the 
candidate for Governor; and the vote is usually somewhat 
less. This fact applies equally to the candidates of both, or 
all parties, and consequently does not disturb the compara- 
bility of the returns, or the significance of the ratios and in- 
ferences therefrom. Second, there was, as we have seen, a 
special concentration upon Mr. Rusch by the Democrats to 
discount his importance and to destroy his chances of election. 
Third, within the ranks of the Republicans there were sundry 
serious adverse currents operating against him. To ardent 
"Americans" his nomination was repellant and impossible. 
To radical advocates of "Temperance" legislation and to ex- 
treme religionists he was anathema. In respect of the for- 
mer, however, Mr. Ruscli's weakness was his source of 
strength : for per contra he was correspondingly strong among 
the Germans ; and his staunch anti-slavery views and course 
counted heavily in his favor with the energetic "progressives" 
of those days. The very vigor with which the Democrats 
assailed him was conclusive proof that the Democrats deemed 
Mr. Rusch a tower of strength to the Republicans, and hence 
to be overthrown if possible. The returns may fairly be said 
to indicate this conclusion. 

The more interesting phases of the returns will be realized 
if we examine them by sections of the State. Iowa, while a 
small state compared with California, Montana or Texas, is 
a vast expanse compared with the area of many of her sister 
Commonwealths east of the Mississippi river. Within her 
borders she can comprehend almost the six states of New 
England or one half of the British Isles. In 1859 local dif- 
ferences in feelings and traditions were greatly enhanced by 
the lack of facilities for rapid transit and communication. As 
a premise for such a study of the sentiment of the various 
sections of the state I have divided the state into four divisions 
as nearly equal as the county lines make feasible."^ 

•■•1 The Northern and Southern divisions are separated by a line 
beginning between Harrison and Monona counties on the Missouri river 

— 152 — 



Returns were received from 95 counties. Mr. Kirkwood 
carried 58 and Gen. Dodge 34. The returns of three counties 
were a tie. Mr. Rusch carried every county carried by Mr. 
Kirkwood. 

In the 21 counties of the South-east quarter the Repub- 
licans prevailed in 13 and the Democrats in 8 counties. The 
vote for Kirkwood in those thirteen counties exceeded Dodge's 
by 3063 votes; and Rusch's majority was 2742. Their re- 
spective majorities in the entire section were 1379 and 907. 

In the North-east quarter the Republicans carried 21 and 
the Democrats but 5 counties. Kirkwood's vote totalled 4063 
and Rusch's 4050. Kirkwood's majority, however, was but 
2124 and Rusch's 2274. 

In the western half of the state the Democrats had the 
greater proportion of the votes. In the South-western quarter 
Kirkwood carried 13 counties with majorities totalling 983 
and Dodge carried 10 with majorities amounting to 1116. 
Rusch's majority in the same counties amounted to 1055. In 
the North-west quarter Kirkwood carried 11 counties and 
Dodge an equal number. Rusch's majority was three less than 
Kirkwood's, which was 263. 

Some interesting facts are exhibited in a comparison of 

and running straight east to Cedar county, thence north to Jones county, 
thence to Clinton, thence south to Scott county, and thence east to the 
Mississippi river. 

The Eastern and Western divisions begins on the Missouri state 
line between .Appanoose and Wayne counties, thence north to Marion 
county, thence west to Warren, thence north to Story, thence east to 
Marshall county, thence north to Hardin county, west to Hamilton, and 
thence north to the Minnesota line dividing Winnebago and Worth 
counties. 

This division is necessarily uneven. The eastern half contains 
forty-seven counties and the western half fifty-two counties. The 
Southern division contains forty-four counties and the Northern division 
fifty-five counties. Or by Quarters — the Northeast Quarter has twenty- 
six counties; the Southeast Quarter, twenty-one; the Northwest, 
twenty-nine; and the Southwest, twenty-three. The inequality is 
partially neutralized by the fact that the eastern, and especially the 
southeastern sections were the more populous. 

— 153 — 



the votes and majorities received by Messrs. Kirkwood and 
Rusch. 

In the 21 counties of the South-east quarter Rusch's vote 
v^^as exactly equal to Kirkvi^ood's in one county, in excess in 
four by 101 votes and in arrears in 16 counties by 336 votes — 
a net difference of 235. Contrasting Rusch's majority over 
his competitor, with Kirkwood's over Dodge and it exceeded 
Kirkwood's in five counties by 71 votes and fell short in eight 
by 381 votes — a net deficit of 310. 

Rusch's vote was equal to Kirkwood's in seven counties of 
the North-east quarter. It exceeded Kirkwood's in six by 
364 votes and was below in 13 counties by 134 votes — a net 
excess of 230 votes. Comparing the majorities Rusch's 
equalled Kirkwood's in four counties ; exceeded it in seven 
by 114 votes and fell short in 10 counties by 12.S votes — a net 
difference of 11 votes. 

If we look at the returns by quarters of the State, we 
have some interesting phases. Mr. Kirkwood's vote was 
slightly greater in all four sections than that received by Mr. 
Rusch. On the other hand in two sections in the North, 
half of the State Mr. Rusch had a larger proportion of the 
vote cast for Lieutenant Governor than Mr. Kirkwood had of 
the vote cast for Governor. 

In the east half of the state [47 counties] Kirkwood re- 
ceived 46,349 votes and Rusch 45,700; and their majorities 
were 3503 and 3171 respectively. Their several ratios of the 
votes cast were Kirkwood 51.9 and Rusch 51.8 per cent. 

In the west half of the State Gen. Dodge prevailed by a 
majority of 201. Kirkwood received 10,185 votes and Rusch 
10,079 votes. Both had the same ratio of votes 49.5 per cent. 

The South half of the State [44 counties] gave Kirkwood 
a majority of only 1246 and Rusch 727. In the ratio of their 
votes Kirkwood had 50.9 per cent and Rusch 50.5 per cent. 

The North half of the State [55 counties] gave Kirkwood 
a few votes more than Rusch ; but Kirkwood's majority was 
2056, whereas Rusch's was 2212."- 

•''2 See Appendices A, B and C for details in tabular form. 
— 154 — 



The returns arc no less interesting if we examine them more 
minutely. 

The counties along the Mississippi from Allamakee on the 
North to Lee on the South, number ten. The Republicans 
carried five: Clayton by 201 majority; Clinton by 84; Scott 
by 583; Muscatine by 93; and Louisa county by Til. The 
Democrats likewise carried five counties: Allamakee 282 
majority; Dubuque 1402; Jackson by 206; Des Moines by 219; 
and Lee county by 233. 

Of the ten counties bordering on the Missouri state line 
the Republicans carried but three — Ringgold by 125, Taylor 
by 47 and Page by 44. The Democrats carried seven — Lee 
by 233, Van Buren by 5, Davis by 425, Appanoose by 358, 
Wayne by 21, Decatur by 381, and Fremont by 211 majority. 

The Republicans were successful in but two counties bor- 
dering upon the Missouri river, in Mills and Plymouth coun- 
ties. In both Mr. Rusch had larger majorities than Mr. 
Kirkwood had. 

In the counties on the Minnesota line the Republicans car- 
ried every one but two. Rusch's majority was larger than 
Kirkwood 's in two counties, below in one and equal to his 
chief's in four others. In Allamakee, the uppermost, north- 
east county gave Rusch a larger vote than it did Kirkwood. 

We may realize how close the contest was, and the force 
of the adverse drifts against which the Republicans had to 
contend, if we examine the returns from the "river counties" 
and compare them with the returns for 1857. In these coun- 
ties Germans were more numerous than elsewhere in the state. 
In three of the five counties carried by Kirkwood and Rusch, 
in Clayton, Clinton and Louisa, the Republicans won by smaller 
ratios of the aggregate vote compared with their ratios in 
1857. This decrease was partially offset by increases in the 
counties carried by the Democrats, namely in Dubuque, Des 
Moines and Lee counties. In seven out of the ten counties 
Rusch's ratio was smaller than that of his predecessor in 
office — in Allamakee, Clayton. Jackson, Clinton, Scott, Mus- 
catine and Louisa counties. The Democrats carried these 
counties bv 1104 votes. They had carried them in 1857 by 

— 155 — 



1215 votes. Taking the ratios of the respective candidates 
in the two separate elections and Mr. Rusch's gain was larger 
than Mr. Kirkwood's. In 1857 Mr. Lowe had 47.4 per cent 
of the entire vote and in 1859 Mr. Kirkwood had 48.2, a gain 
of 0.8 per cent; whereas Mr. Faville in 1857 had 47.1 per cent 
of the vote and in 1859 Mr. Rusch had 48.4 per cent, a gain 
of 1.3 per cent — five points in excess of the gain made by Mr. 
Kirkwood.^^ 

Mr. Rusch's majority, while less in point of numbers than 
that given the head of his ticket stands well on close scrutiny. 
Taking all votes evidently designed for him [viz. those cast 
for N. P. and N. Rusch] Mr. Rusch received 51.1 per cent 
of the total vote cast for Lieutenant Governor. His propor- 
tion was but two-tenths of a per cent less than Mr. Kirkwood 
received. Mr. Rusch's majority of 2372 [according to the 
legislative count] was 2.2 per cent of the total vote cast com- 
pared with 2.7 secured by his associate. 

Mr. Rusch's vote was larger in ratio and per centage than 
was received by his immediate predecessor in office, at the 
preceding gubernatorial election in 1857, Mr. Oran Faville, 
the first Lieutenant Governor elected in the history of the 
state. Mr. Faville had a majority of 1313 over his two com- 
petitors. His vote constituted but 50.9 of the entire vote; 
whereas Mr. Rusch's equalled 51.1 per cent. Mr. Faville's 
majority was only 1.7 per cent of the total vote and Mr. Rusch's 
was 2.2 per cent. Mr. Faville's vote fell short of Mr. Lowe's 
vote 865 or 2.2 per cent; while Mr. Rusch ran behind Mr. 
Kirkwood 1046 or only 1.8 per cent. 

Mr. Rusch, we may fairly conclude, was relatively stronger 
at the polls than was his American predecessor; and the sub- 
stantial fact in explanation was doubtless his German birth 
and German affiliations. 

Summing up: — Mr. Rusch was slightly weaker than his 
associate on the Republican ticket in the east half of the state ; 
but in the crucial "river counties" his name added strength. 
In the west half he stood forth equally strong in the returns 
and in many counties he was stronger than his chief. In the 

^3 See Appendices D and E. 

— 156 — 



We liad a terrible fi.dit here. There were 507 more 
votes polled in this city [Burlington] than two years ago, 
though everybody admits that our pGi)ulation is at least 
2500 less than it 'was then. Yet we held our own. There 
■ were about 1000 more votes polled in the county than ever 
before, two thirds of which were cast by Irishmen. Yet 
we reduced Samuels' majority from 243 to 219 for Dodge. 
The entire influence of the Railroad was brought to bear 
against us along the whole line of it. 

We must abolish the office of County Judge and shut up 
those naturalization shops all over the state. 
We must have a strict Registry law. 
We must require a majoritv' of all railroad directors to 
reside in the state and to keep the office of the Secretary, 
books, etc.. within the state, accessible to all. 
Senator Grimes' letter is illuminating. It would doubtless 
be equaly instructive if we could examined the exhibits of 
Gen. Dodge's correspondence. Partizans suffer seriously fronj 
predisposition to charge all of the cardinal offenses upon their 
antagonists. As railroads, or their promoters, usually accord 
to the party in power "distin.guished consideration" we may 
suspect that the Republicans of Iowa were not entirely ignored 
and unassisted by the Railroads. As a considerable number of 
the County judges were Republicans it would be interesting 
to know^ whether Republicans unduely utilized "the naturaliza- 
tion shops." Senator Grimes, it will be recalled, at the very 
outset of the campaign urged energetic measures in the ascer- 
tainment of the names and addresses of all Germans eligible 
to citizenship and in the completion of the process of natural- 
ization. 

Here and there in the State Republican editors in their 
post-election laudation frankly acknowledged the indebtedness 
of the Republican cause to the active co-operation of the 
Germans and of the Hollanders. Some citations from The 

"The Democrats have made a great effort during the campaign to 
rescue the state [Iowa] from black Republican rule; and if their 
prognostications are worth anything, we shall be prepared to hear of 
a democratic victory tomorrow."' 

Senator Grimes' sweeping assertion must be set down as a generous 
inference that the premises do not exactly authorize. 

— 157 - 



south half of the State he was weaker than Mr. Kirkwood; 
but he had a lar^^er ratio of his vote than his compeer had of 
his vote. Coupling this complex of facts with the superior 
ratio of his vote compared with that realized by his party 
predecessor in office and the fact that in many counties more 
votes were cast for him than for Mr. Kirkwood, e. g., in 
Clayton, Dubuque and Des Moines counties we may fairly 
conclude that Mr. Rusch's name on the Republican ticket in 
Iowa in 1859 resulted in a substantial net gain to the Repub- 
lican party and probably saved Mr. Kirkwood from defeat. 
The premises for this conclusion are greatly enhanced by the 
primary fact obvious to all throughout the entire preliminaries 
of the convention and the progress of the campaign namely — 
the balance of political power in the state was easily in the 
possession of the Germans. 

XXXIII. 

Somewhat of the intensity and vigor of the contest, and of 
the tremendous concentration of the Democrats in their efforts 
to recapture and "redeem" Iowa from Republican rule is ef- 
fectually exhibited in a letter of Senator Grimes to the Gov- 
ernor-elect, dated at Burlington, October 18: 

Well, Governor, the great battle has been fought and 
we have won the victory. * * * 

It has leaked out since the election that the Democrats 
spent in the canvass somewhere between $30,000 and 
$50,000, sent here mostly from Washington and New 
York. The New York Herald of the 11th inst. [day of 
the election] declared that after the exertions of the 
Democrats to redeem the state and the predictions they 
made of the result in Iowa, it would be useless to think 
of ever redeeming Iowa if it is not saved now.''* 

2* Senator Grimes was not quite accurate in stating the attitude of 
the N. Y. Herald. In its editorial columns, after speaking of the chances 
of Gen. Dodge with his well known "Southern principles," it says : 
"The odds, we apprehend, are now heavily against him." Tt then adds 
that the course of the Douglas men may further lessen his chances. 

The only sentence in the Herald of October 11 that gives grounds 
for Senator Grimes' observation is the following from some notes 
labeled "Political Intelligence" (p. 10, col. 1) : 

— 158 — 



Gate City and The Imi'a City Republican will illustrate and 
enforce the conclusion just submitted. 

The campaign in Lee county was hotly contested and Ger- 
mans were the central strategic objective of the maneuvers of 
both political parties. The Republicans almost captured that 
stronghold of the Democrats. The Germans and Hollanders, 
apparently, openly avowed their sentiments and publicly acted 
with the Repubhcans in such numbers as to make a decided 
impression locally, as the following expressions of Mr. Howell 
convincingly show : they were penned on the day following 
the election and appeared the morning after: 

Verily, Germany is a power in Lee County, and Keo- 
kuk ; but while the pro-slavery Eadsites have only cause 
to cringe and tremble before the Teutons, the Republi- 
cans may heartily rejoice at the free and earnest co-opera- 
tion of tlie German Americans at the polls on Tuesday. 
There was not a solitary man of any influence and promi- 
nence among them who electioneered for the Democratic 
ticket ; and a large majority of the voters — problably 
three-fourths or more of them — deposited their ballots 
for the Republican candidates. This they did of their 
own free motion and honest conviction. They asked 
nothing as Germans ; they only wished to be recognized as 
Americans on an equal footing; they paid no particular 
attention to German candidates ; they only endeavored to 
understand the most eflfective method of damaging the 
Democracy with Republican weapons, and of recording 
their sentiments upon the topics of the times in the most 
emphatic manner. 
The activity of the Hollanders of Keokuk elicited another 

sei)arate expression on the same day under a similar caption, 

"The Holland Vote." 

We have in this town a quite numerous vote from the 
Hollanders. Like the Germans, on Tuesday, they gen- 
erally, ranked themselves on the side of free labor and 
human rights. They voted with us, we believe, nearly 
as unanimously as the Germans. A very few among their 
prominent men labored zealously to take their votes for 
the Democracy; but the more intelligent and influential 
people among them were with us. Our sentiments com- 
manded their applause, and the stampede could be but 
partiallv checked. They were Republicans in spirit and 
— 159 — 



faith, and a great body of them have taken their stand 

with us and feel at home among us. 
The contest in Johnson county was especially spirited be- 
cause of the considerable foreign-born population resident 
therein. Bohemians and Hungarians, Germans and Irish 
easily held control, in case any issue impelled them strongly 
to vote one way. In an article which affords us another illus- 
tration of Mr. Rusch's homely speech, Mr. G. H. Jerome thus 
expresses his feelings and observations [Oct. 19] under the 
caption, "Honor to Whom Honor is Due." 

The glorious victory achieved in Johnson County is 
due, in no small part, to those noble-hearted, liberty- 
loving Germans who stood side by side with the American 
Republicans, in the late contest. The name of Democ- 
racy has cheated them long enough. There is no longer 
any music for the Germans in Democracy's harp of many 
strings. Democracy has long enough required the Ger- 
man to belie his instincts — his deepest convictions. As 
their Lieut. Governor-elect lately told them in Market 
Hall, the Democracy first required them to eat shoe pegs; 
finding them eating shoe pegs they commanded them to 
eat spikes; finding them ready to eat spikes, the Democ- 
racy concluded the Germans might be fed on pitchforks; 
but, to the great consternation and discomfiture of the 
Democracy, they found pitchforks distasteful, and ill 
suited to some German stomachs. The harrow which 
the Democracy had in preparation for the German di- 
gestive organs, after the pitchforks shall have been con- 
verted into chyle, is not likely to become a very common 
article of political diet; for our political brethren, the 
Germans, are beginning to learn and to understand some 
of the laws of political dietetics, and they, most likely, 
will exclude the harrow from the bill of fare. 
* * * 

Credit, too, is to be given to a few sons of the sea girt 
Isle, who dared to break away from the tyranny of the 
Democracy, and vote as their consciences and their judg- 
ments dictated. They, too, are beginning to find out that 
the Democracy does not own them in fee simple, and are 
making a "good ready" to contest the claim by which 
they have been transferred over, body and soul, to the 
Negro-spreading Democracy. 

Thanks all. Thanks to those Germans and Irishmen 
— 160 — 



who helped to swell the Republican majority in the late 
election. May they ever find the Republican cause and 
the Republican party worthy their confidence and support. 
If the Germans were thus inclined to affiliate with the Re- 
publicans in other parts of the state and actually participated 
in like degree in promoting the Republican program, the con- 
clusion would seem to be forced upon us that there was in 
consequence of the appeal to the "German vote" and of their 
open support of the Republican standard a serious and almost 
disastrous reaction among the "American" and "Temperance" 
forces, who either stayed in their tents on October 11, or they 
joined the ranks of the Democrats and followed the standards 
of that party to the polls. 

XXXII. 

Our review of the political events in Iowa, preliminary 
to and during the gubernatorial campaign of 1859, so far 
as it relates to the Germans and their interests and part 
therein, has disclosed a number of interesting and important 
facts, a summary of which may appropriately conclude our 
study. ^* 

In January, 1859, the prospects for the continuance of the 
political supremacy of the Republicans in Iowa were not favor- 
able. The outlook soon became menacing. The passage of 
the "Two Year" Amendment in Massachusetts in February — 
an act which adversely afifected the status of the foreign-born 
— instantly produced a critical situation. The Germans 
throughout all of the Free states west of New England be- 
came hostile, belligerent and aggressive. Republican leaders 
promptly realized that it was necessary to institute instant and 
drastic measures to allay the suspicions and prevent the revolt 
of the German Republicans. 

The Democratic party of Iowa, through its local leaders 
and its national leaders, acting jointly or concurrently in the 
larger cities of Iowa and in Washington, D. C, designed a 
special concert of action to recapture the state from the Re- 
publicans. One of the primary considerations in their plan 

3* The writer's "The Germans of Iowa and the 'Two Year' Amend- 
ment of Massachusetts" is comprehended in the summary following. 

— 161 — 



was preparation for the approaching presidential contest in 
1860. The Kepublican leaders early discerned this concen- 
tration and design of their opponents and in all of their coun- 
tcrjjlans and maneuvers they constantly urged the necessities 
of their party in the great quadrennial contest then impending 
as the paramount consideration. 

By reason of the narrow margin within which the Re- 
publicans held their control the Germans possessed a whip 
hand in politics. The balance of power was with them. The 
party that incurred their ill-will and against which they would 
throw their major influence was certain of defeat at the polls. 
The sudden, deep, intense and widespread indignation ex- 
hibited by Germans over the passage of the "Two Year" 
Amendment became the primary and dominant fact in the pre- 
convention discussions and maneuvers among Republicans and 
determined the tactics and strategy of the leaders of both 
parties. 

The excitement and warlike attitude of the Germans of 
Iowa were so threatening to the success of the Republican 
party that that party's leaders, in order to counteract their 
suspicions and secure their allegiance, resorted to extra- 
ordinary measures in denouncing the act of the state of 
Massachusetts. Furthermore, in replies to interrogatories of 
the Germans couched in terms and presented in a fashion that 
made them tantamount to an ultimatum, the entire Congres- 
sional delegation, severally and explicitly repudiated the prin- 
ciple and policy of the '"Two Year'' Amendment. 

If Republican supremacy in the state was to be main- 
tained, the alliance and good will of the Germans were so 
imperatively required that personal, factional, and sectional 
interests had to give way. Able, tried and honored leaders 
were set aside by the Republican managers in the selection of 
one of the standard bearers, and a leading German was nomi- 
nated for Lieutenant Governor for the express purpose of 
holding and attracting German voters. 

In the campaign which ensued partizan discussion and 
nianeuvres concentrated and veered about three general sub- 
jects: — 

— 162 — 



1. Slavery — its extension or extinction. 2. The financial 
mismanagement of Iowa. 3. The treatment of the foreign- 
born in state and national policy. 

The latter complex comprehended a j^roup of intricate 
questions : the status of the foreign-born in local relation- 
ships ; the conditions of admission to the franchise in their 
states of residence; and their rights, when naturalized, to pro- 
tection from the United States against adverse action of their 
parent states, on returning to and sojourning in or passing 
through their parent states. 

The principle of the ruling of the Supreme Court of the 
nation in the celebrated case of Dred Scott, the exercise of 
state sovereignty in the enactment of the "Two Year" Amend- 
ment in Massachusetts that so seriously affected the rights 
and privileges of naturalized citizens, and the principle of the 
ruling of Secretary Cass in his letter to Felix LeClerc — these 
three notable acts constituted the paramount facts in the drifts 
and shifts of public discussion. The argument respecting 
each invariably fused with each of the others. From the 
outset of the campaign discussion ebbed and flowed, in and 
and everywhere in the state, down to the very close of the 
contest. 

Germans found themselves confused between contrary con- 
siderations. The vast majority of Germans had left their 
fatherland because of their resistance to oppressive govern- 
ment, or because of their desire for greater liberty of action 
and exemption from governmental inquisition and control. 
Slavery was more than disagreeable to the German radical. 
It was the consummation of governmental interference with 
the individual and control over his life. He therefore esteemed 
slaver}' an execrable institution. On the other hand, Germans 
were staunch supporters of law and order, if they were not 
bottomed on oppression. Respect for property was strong 
with them for they were as a people thrifty par excellence; 
and protection of property and the enforcement of property 
rights were to them a summutn bonutn. Slaveholders and 
their human chattels, although obnoxious in principle, were 
recognized by the law of the land, therefore to be protected 

— 163 — 



in the peaceful possession of their own. Such protection, 
however, as radical Germans viewed the matter, was to be 
confined to the area wherein slavery was locally established. 
Its extension was not to be tolerated. The repeal of the 
Missouri Compromise seemed to threaten the German's own 
condition with contamination. Instantly thousands of Ger- 
mans deserted the l^emocratic standards. Concurrent opposi- 
tion of Southern leaders to the proposals for free homesteads 
further increased their discontent with the course of the 
Democratic party. 

On the contrary, Germans saw much among the anti- 
slavery forces and factions that gave them grave cause for 
anxiety and alarm. Anti-foreign prejudice was especially rife 
and in the middle years of that decade it blazed out in bitter 
malevolence and hostile propaganda that culminated in the 
perversities of Know-Nothingism and drastic Sumptuary 
legislation that struck at many of their dearly prized personal 
liberties and customs. The passage of the "Two Year" in 
Massachusetts was an expression of this anti-foreign spirit of 
malevolence. It disturbed and nearly wrecked their confidence 
in the integrity of the Republican party, which, in its national 
platform adopted at Philadelphia in 1856, had specifically 
pledged itself as a body to oppose all legislation or policies 
prejudicial to liberty of conscience and equality of rights among 
all classes. 

In this complex of contrary considerations and this con- 
tradiction in the conduct of the two major parties, the Germans 
stood perplexed and somewhat at a loss as to the proper 
course to pursue. In the forepart of the campaign, or rather, 
in the preliminaries of the campaign, the Democrats appar- 
ently had the more favorable prospects with respect to secur- 
ing the favor of the Germans. Rut the widespread and 
decisive repudiation of the act of Massachusetts by the Re- 
publicans in Wisconsin, Minnesota, Michigan, Ohio, Illinois 
and New York, in Kansas and California ; and particularly 
the outright and downright denunciation of the act by all of 
the party leaders in Iowa and the Republican state convention 
together with the nomination of Mr. Rusch for Lieutenant 

— 164 — 



Governor, checked the desertions of Germans from Repub- 
lican ranks. The course of the Repubhcan leaders of Iowa 
with respect to the Germans probably saved the party from 
defeat at the polls — a contingency but barely escaped. 

Another fact discernible in the course of the discussion is 
that the name of Abraham Lincoln was firmly fixed in public 
consciousness. In the pages of the German press no less than 
in the columns of the American papers it is clear that his fame 
and influence were deemed to be national in range and potent 
in the formation of public opinion. There is both the particular 
and the familiar mention. His expressions are reprinted as 
authoritative and his views were desired and put forth as 
definite contributions in the determination of party policy and 
public decisions. In his Address to the German-American 
voters of Iowa on May 20, denouncing the "Two Year" 
Amendment, Mr. Louis Schade hurled his bolts at the party 
that supported "the Seward and Lincoln principle that there 
must be eternal war between the free and the slave states." 
Here is an underlying assumption that the statesman of 
Springfield was, and was presumed to be, among the foremost 
in national counsels. Abraham Lincoln's letter of May 17, to 
Dr. Theodore Canisius declaring unequivocal opposition to the 
principle of the "Two Year" Amendment of Massachusetts 
was extensively reprinted in most of the influential Republican 
papers of Iowa. It was promptly reprinted in the columns of 
Der Demokrat; and its contents acted powerfully in creating 
that favorable state of mmd among the Germans that caused 
liberal Germans everywhere throughout the northern Free 
states to acclaim and heartily endorse the nominee of the 
national Republican convention at Chicago, May 18, 1860. 



— 165 — 



Appendices, 

Being Exhibits of the Votes for Governor and Lieutenant 
Governor of Iowa in 1859. 

[For description of the Divisions see Note 31.] 



Summary of Vote for Governor. 



Section 



Vote 



i4 



Ratio 



t^ 



Majority- 
Vote 



l^ 



Per 

cent of 
Total 
Vote 



East Half 

West Half 

South Half 

North Half 

Southeast Quarter. 
Northeast Quarter. 
Southwest Quarter. 
Northwest Quarter 
Whole State 



89,195 
20,571 
66,468 
43,298 
49.899 
39,296 
16,569 
4,002 
109,766 



46,349 
10,185 
33,857 
22,677 
25,639 
20,710 
8,218 
1,967 
56,534 



42,846 
10,386 
32,611 
20,621 
24,260 
18,586 
8,351 
2,035 
53,232 



51.9 
49.5 
50.9 
52.3 
51.3 
52.7 
49.6 
49.2 
51.5 



48.1 
50.5 
49.1 
47.7 
48.7 
47.3 
50.4 
50.8 
49.5 



3,503 



1,246 
2.056 
1,379 
2,124 



201 



133 
68 



3,302 



3.0 



0.9 



0.6 
1.4 



B 



Summary of Vote for Lieutenant Governor. 



Section 


o 
> 

3 

o 
H 


Vote 


Ratio 


Majority 
Vote 


Per 
cent of 
Total 
Vote 


a 
Pi 


IS 


en 


3 

re 


X! 

3 


re 


x; 
u 

f5 


X 

X 

re 


East Half 


88,229 
20,390 
65,519 
43,000 
49,111 
39,118 
16.408 
3,982 
108,619 


45,700 
10.079 
33,123 
22.656 
25,004 
20,696 
8,119 
1,960 
55,779 


42,529 
10,311 
32,396 
20,444 
24,107 
18,422 
8.289 
2,022 
52,840 


51.8 
49.5 
50.5 
52.6 
50.8 
52.8 
49.5 
49.3 
51.1 


48.2 
50.5 
49.5 
47.4 
49.2 
47.2 
50.5 
50.7 
49.9 


3,171 

727 
2,212 

897 
2,274 

2,939 


232 

170 
62 


3.5 

1.1 
5.1 
1.8 
5.8 

2.7 




West Half 


1 1 


South Half 




North Half 




Southeast Quarter 

Northeast Quarter 

Southwest Quarter 

Northwest Quarter 

Whole State 


1.0 

1.5 







166 — 



Vote for Governor and Lieutenant Governor by Counties by 
Quarters. 



Southeast Quarter 
OF Iowa. 




Appanoose 

Cedar 

Davis 

Des Moines 

Henry 

Iowa 

Jasper 

Jefferson 

Johnson 

Keokuk 

Lee 

Louisa 

Mahoska 

Marion 

Monroe 

Muscatine 

Powlshiek 

Scott 

Van Buren 

Wapello 

Washington 

Total . . . . 



2.S.639i24.260|25.004|24.107|3.063|1.684 2.732 L835 



— 107 — 



II. 

Northeast Quarter 
OF Iowa, 



Vote 



Governor 



be 



Lieut. Gov. 



Oi 



Majority 
Governor Lieut. Gov. 



« 



U!, 



^ 



m 



Allamakee .. 

Benton 

Black Hawk 

Bremer 

Buchanan . . 

Butler 

Cerro Gordo 
Chickasaw . . 
Clayton .... 

Clinton 

Delaware . . . 
Dubuque . . . 

Fayette 

Floyd 

Franklin 

Grundy 

Hardin 

Howard .... 
Jackson .... 

Jones 

Linn 

Marshall . . . 

Mitchell 

Tama 

Winneshiek . , 
Worth 



743 

914 

815 

417j 

816| 

474 

117 

439 

1,630 

1,605 

844 

1.751 

1,102 

495 

201 

110 

645 

336! 

1,293J 

1.161| 

1,771 1 

795 1 

5161 

600| 

1,022| 

981 



1.025 

732 

550 

438 

570 

2A^ 

72 

308 

1,4291 

1,521 

894 

3.153 

849 

281 

51 

17 

458 

279 

1,477 

1,153 

1,345 

442 

204 

295 

771 1 

261 



755 

899 

808 

416 

812 

430 

113 

443 

1.666 

1,606 

842 

1.815 

1,102 

492 

201 

110 

644 

336 

1,277 

1,156 

1,749 

795 

516 

590 

1,0251 



l.( 



732 182 
555 I 265 
4381 
573 246 
245] 228 
75 45 
303] 131 
201 
84 



282 



21 



1,394 

1,503 
891 

3.081 
845 
284 
50 
17 
459 
278, 

1,463 j 

1,152! 8 

1,349| 426 
442 I 353 
204| 312 
2901 305 
765 j 251 

26! n 



253 
214 
150 

93 
187 

57 



50 
,402 



184 



167 
253 

239 
185 
38 
140 
272 
103 



257 
208 
151 

93 
185 

58 

4 
400 
353 
312 
300 
260 
72 



253 



22 



49 

1,206 



186 



Total |20,710|18.586|20,696|18,422|4.063|1.939!4,050!1.776 



168 




Audubon 

Cass 

Clarke 

Dallas 

Decatur 

Fremont I 293 

Guthrie I 257 

Harrison ^^' 

Lucas I ''^'■ 

Madison [ 651 

Mills ' 

Montgomery 1-5 

Page I ^^'^ 

Polk |l-078 

Pottawattamie ] 295 

Ringgold j 260 

Shelby I 78 

Taylor I 304l 257 

Union I 151| 193 

Warren 1 937| 609| 894 

Wa>Tie 



416 4351 400 



Total . 



8,218 8,351 8.1 19!8,289| 983|1.116 1.05511.225 



169 — 





Vote 


Majority 


IV. 


Governor 


Lieut.Gov. 


Governor 


Lieut.Gov. 


Northwest Quarter 
OF Iowa. 


-a 
o 
o 

5 


O 

Q 


J3 
3 


IS 
n 


-a 
o 
o 

i5 


to 
o 


o 

3 


c« 
OQ 


Boone 


298 

2 

17 

30 

12 

3 

45 

31 

18 

126 

192 

19 

49 

4 

75 

105 

3 
24 
16 

28 

395 
252 

11 
132 

80 

1 

1.967| 


413 

6 

17 

30 

7 

9 

55 

15 

5 

146 

105 

14 

29 

3 

37 

105 

44 
11 
17 
37 

358 
333 

24 
163 

52 

2,035 


296 

2 

17 

30 

12 

3 

47 

30 

18 

125 

191 

19 

49 

4 

76 

103 

3 

28 
15 
28 

389 
252 

11 
134 

78 

1.960 


411 

6 

17 

30 

7 

9 

51 

15 

5 

146 

105 

14 

29 

3 

36 

107 

43 

8 

18 

37 

360 

331 

24 

158 

52 

2,022 


5 

16 
13 

87 
5 

20 
1 

38 

13 

37 

28 
263 


115 
4 

6 
10 

20 

41 

1 
9 

81 
13 
31 

331 


5 

15 
13 

86 

5 
20 

1 
40 

20 
29 

26 

260 


115 


Buena Vista 


4 


Calhoun 




Carroll 




Cherokee 




Clay 


6 


Crawford 


4 


Dickinson 




Emmet 




Greene 


21 


Hamilton 




Hancock 




Humboldt 




Ida 




Kossuth 




Lyon 

Monona 


4 


O'Brien 




Osceola 




Palo Alto 


40 


Plymouth 




Pocahontas 


3 


Sac 


9 


Sioux 




Story 




Webster 


79 


Winnebago 

Woodbury 

Wright 

Total 


13 
24 

322 



170 



D 

Vote for Governor in Counties on Mississippi River in 1854. 1857, 

AND 1859. 





It 


Vote 


M 


ajority 


Ratio 




• 1 








„ 








u 


-= -° 1 




J3 


o 


S " 


J3 


o 




> 


o 


3 

a. 


E 


3 


E 


l^ 


3 


E 
11 






h 


Qtf 


Q 


Oti 


Q 


a< 


<A 


Q 


Allamakee — 


1854 496 


299 


197 


102 


20.0 


60.2 39.8 




1857 


1.117 


543 


574 




31 2.7 48.6 


51.4 




1859 


1.768 


743 


1,025 




282 15.8 42.0 


58.0 


Clayton- 


1854 


1,019 


687 


332 


355 


34.8 37.1 


32.9 




1857 


1,668 


949 


719 


230 


1 3.7 j 56.8 


43.2 




1859 


3,059 


1,630 


1,429 


201 


6.5153.6 


46.4 


Dubuque — 


1854 1,770| 669 


1,101 




432|24.4|37.8 


62.2 




1857 3,481 


999 


2,482 




1,483142.6128.7 


71.3 




1859 


4,904 


1,751 


3,153 




1,402| 28.5 1 35.7 


64.3 


Jackson — 


1854 


1,335 


618 


717 




99 7.4144.2155.8 




1857 


1,891 


872 


1,019 




147 7.7146.1 153.9 




1859 


2.792 


1,293 


1,499 




207 7.3146.3153.7 


Clinton — 


1854 


908 


443 


465 




22 2.4148.7 51.3 




1857 


2.150 


1,159 


991 


168 


7.8 53.9 46.1 




1859 3.126 


1,605 


1.521 


84 


2.6151.3 48.7 


Scott- 


1854 


1.356 


m 


583 


190 




14.0157.0143.0 




1857 


3.116 


1,717 


1.399 


318 




10.2155.1 44.9 




1859 


3.833 


2.208 


1,625 


583 




15.2157.6 42.4 


Muscatine — 


18541 1,358| 739 


619 


120 




8.8154.3 45.7 




1857 2,245 


1,140 


1,105 


35 




1.5|50.7 49.3 




1859 2.821 


1,457 


1,364 


93 




3.2151.6148.4 


Louisa — 


1854 1,104 


645 


459 


1 186 




17.7|58.4141.6 




1857 1.628 


959 


669 


290 




17.8158.8|41.2 




1859 1,635 


956 


679 


1 277 




17.0158.4141.6 


Des Moines — 


1854 2.258 


1.045 


1,213 




168| 7.4 


46.3153.7 




1857 2,567 


1,162 


1.405 




2431 ^•'* 


45.2154.8 




1859 3,627 


1,704 


1.923 




219| 6.0 


46.9|53.1 


Ue— 


1854 


3.101 1.425 


1,676 




251 1 8.0|45.9|54.1 




1857 


3.766 1.707 


2.059 




352! 9.3'45.3|44.7 




1859 


4.551 2.159 


2.392 




2331 5.1|47.4|52.6 


Total Vote- 


1854] 14.705 1 7,343 
1857123,629111,207 
1859|32,116| 15.506 


1 7,362 
1 12,422 
116,610 




19| .1|49.9|50.1 
1,215| 5.1147.4|52.6 
1.1041 3.443.2|51.8 



171 — 



Vote for L,ieutenant Governor in Counties on Mississippi River ih 

1857 AND 1859. 





ca 


Vote 


Majority 


Ratio 




2 cL 


E 
Q 


S 
< 


u 


E 
Q 


a'a 

'J 

0. O 


a. 


S 

Q 


B 
< 


Allamakee— 1857 1,110 
1859 1,763 


548 552 1 
755 1,008| 




6 

253 


0.5 
14.3 


49.8 
42.8 


50.2 

57.2 




Clayton— 1857 1,663 
1859 3.060 


950 
1,666 


713 
1,394 


12 


225 
272 




13.5 
8.8 


57.1 
54.4 


42.8 
45.6 


0.1 


Dubuque — 


1857 
1859 


3,485 
4.896 


1,014 
1,815 


2,471 
3.081 




1,457 
1.266 


41.8 
25.8 


29.0 
37.1 


71.0 
62.9 




Jackson — 


1857 
1859 


1,784 
2,740 


869 
1,277 


915 
1,463 






46| 2.5 
1861 6.7 


48.7 
46.6 


51.3 
53.4 




Clinton— 1857 
1859 


2,134 
3,109 


1,163 
1,606 


970 
1,503 


1 


192 
103 




8.9 
3.3 


54.5|45.5 
51.6|48.4 




Scott— 1857 
1859 


3,114 
4,704 


1,721 1,393 
2,085 1.619 




328 
466 




10.5 
9.9 


55.2|44.8 
50.7|49.3 




Muscatine — 


1857 
1859 


2.251 
2.723 


1,139 
1,369 


1,112 
1,354 




27 
15 




1.2i50.6|49.4 
0.5|'50.2|49.8 




Louisa — 


1857 
1859 


1,621 
1,644 


946 
966 


675 

678 




271 
288 




16.6|58.3|41.7 

17.5J58.7 41.3 




Des Moines — 


1857 
1859 


2,740 1,143 
3,560 1,691 


1,410| 187 
1.869| 




80 
178 


2.9|41.7|57.4 

S.047.5|52.5 


6.9 


Lee— 1857 
1859 


3.767 
4,485 


1,651 2,1131 3 
2,108 2,377 


459|12.2|43.8 56.1 
269| 5.5 47.0 53.0 


0.1 


Total Votes— 1857 
1859 


23.671 11,144|12,324| 203 *1.180 
31,684 15.338 (16,346| 1 1,008 


*4.9 47.1|52.1l0.8 
3.1 48.4 51.61 



* Plurality. 



172 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 




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